We’re less than 50 days away from the first full weekend of college football games in North Carolina.
With media days and preseason camps imminent, North Carolina Football News looks back at the most recent conference championship seasons, where applicable, for our state’s FBS programs.
Appalachian State has the most recent. Charlotte is still looking for its first. North Carolina and NC State are hoping to break lengthy conference championship droughts. UNC and Wake have played in recent ACC title games, only to come up short.
2019 – Appalachian State
- Conference: Sun Belt
- Head Coach: Eliah Drinkwitz
- Final Record: 13-1, 7-1 Sun Belt
Details: In his one year at the helm before taking the Missouri job, Drinkwitz delivered a near perfect season. The Mountaineers beat Charlotte and North Carolina in the non-conference and stumbled just once (to Georgia Southern on Halloween night) in Sun Belt play.
App topped Louisiana 45-38 in the Sun Belt title game and raced past UAB 31-17 in the New Orleans Bowl. The 2019 title was the school’s fourth since moving up to FBS in 2014.
The 2019 ASU staff included several notable names. Current head coach Shawn Clark was an assistant head coach and offensive line coach. Ted Roof, a long-time defensive mastermind and former Duke head coach, was the defensive coordinator. Garrett Riley, Clemson’s current offensive coordinator, served as running backs coach.
2009 – East Carolina
- Conference: Conference USA
- Head Coach: Skip Holtz
- Final Record: 9-5, 7-1 CUSA
Details: The Pirates repeated as conference champions in Holtz’s fifth and final season at the helm (he moved to South Florida for the 2010 season).
ECU secured the East Division title with a 25-20 win over Southern Miss on the final day of the regular season. The Pirates then knocked off 18th-ranked Houston 38-32 in the C-USA title game, forcing four turnovers. The Pirates closed their magical year by slipping past Arkansas 20-17 in a Liberty Bowl overtime thriller.
Three players from that ECU squad — defensive tackle Linval Joseph (2nd), punter Matt Dodge (7th) and defensive end CJ Wilson (7th) — earned NFL draft picks. Holtz is now the coach of the defending UFL champion Birmingham Stallions.
2006 – Wake Forest University
- Conference: ACC
- Head Coach: Jim Grobe
- Final Record: 11-3
Details: The first 10-win season in Wake Forest history gave the Deacs their second-ever ACC title and first since 1970. Wake beat Georgia Tech 9-6 in the ACC title game before falling to future ACC member Louisville 24-13 in the Orange Bowl.
The Deacs had been 4-7 in 2005 and were picked in a tie for fourth place in what was then a 12-team ACC. Star linebacker Jon Abbate led the way in 2006 with 120 tackles, including 15 in the ACC championship win to earn game MVP honors and 15 more in the Orange Bowl.
Wake Forest made the ACC title game in 2021 but lost to Pitt.
1989 – Duke
- Conference: ACC
- Head Coach: Steve Spurrier
- Final Record: 8-4, 6-1 ACC
Details: The Blue Devils got off to a rough start in Spurrier’s third year at the helm, losing to South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia during the first four weeks of September. The Devils rallied by sweeping through the rest of the regular season slate to earn a co-conference championship with Virginia.
The ACC did not have a conference title game in the 1980s. Duke fell to Texas Tech 49-21 in the All-American Bowl. The Devils last outright conference title in football came in 1962.
Clarkston Hines caught 17 TD passes for the season and earned both ACC offensive player of the year and All-America honors at wide receiver. Spurrier left for Florida after the ’89 season where he won six SEC crowns and the 1996 national title.
Duke played in the ACC title game in 2013 but lost to Florida State in Charlotte.
1980 – North Carolina
- Conference: ACC
- Head Coach: Dick Crum
- Final Record: 11-1, 6-0 ACC
Details: The Tar Heels finished in the top 10 in the national rankings following their sweep through the ACC (ninth in coaches poll, 10th in AP). The only league foe to stay close was Clemson, which lost to the Heels at home 24-19 in early November.
UNC’s only defeat in 1980 came by a lopsided margin, 41-7, during a non-conference road trip to 16th-ranked Oklahoma. Crum’s team beat Texas 16-7 in the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl to match the program’s best season for wins with 11.
Lawrence Taylor played on the 1980 squad, recording 16 sacks and earning consensus All-America honors. Crum stayed at UNC until 1987 before being ousted – and eventually replaced by Mack Brown. UNC has played in two ACC title games since the advent of that event, in 2015 and 2022, falling to Clemson each time.
1979 – NC State
- Conference: ACC
- Head Coach: Bo Rein
- Final Record: 7-4, 5-1 ACC
Details: In a very balanced season for the ACC, the Pack prevailed over two-loss rivals Clemson, Maryland and Wake Forest in the standings. A late goal-line stand at Clemson in an October clash — State stuffed four straight running plays just shy of the end zone — proved the decisive series in the battle for league supremacy.
North Carolina was the only team to pin an ACC loss on the Wolfpack, winning 35-21 in Raleigh.
The non-conference slate included a pair of narrow late-season defeats, 30-28 at South Carolina and 9-7 at home to Penn State in a game where the Nittany Lions converted a late fourth-and-long and kicked a last-second field goal.
Despite winning the ACC, NC State declined an invitation to the Garden State Bowl in New Jersey after being passed over for the Gator and Peach bowls. Rein accepted the LSU coaching job in late November 1979 but tragically died in a plane crash the next January.
The Wolfpack has finished second or tied for second multiple times since their last title run but no closer. NCSU has yet to appear in an ACC title game. With a talented roster returning, will this be the year that streak gets broken?
N/A – Charlotte
Details: After a three-year run in the 1940s, Charlotte folded its football program. The school revived it in 2013 and played two years as an FCS independent before jumping to FBS..
Charlotte joined Conference USA in 2015 and has made one bowl game (the 2019 Bahamas Bowl) but has finished no better than tied for sixth in conference play during that time. Coach Biff Poggi ushered the 49ers into the American Athletic Conference a year ago, where Charlotte finished 2-6.
