Old North Banter
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North Carolina Tar Heels: Football Schedule 2016 = Meh

By John Woodcock

Dec 29, 2015; Orlando, FL, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Larry Fedora (left) greets Tar Heels defensive end Jalen Dalton (97) during pre game warmups before the Russell Athletic Bowl against the Baylor Bears at the Florida Citrus Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 29, 2015; Orlando, FL, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Larry Fedora (left) greets Tar Heels defensive end Jalen Dalton (97) during pre game warmups before the Russell Athletic Bowl against the Baylor Bears at the Florida Citrus Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports /
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The North Carolina Tar Heels were held out of serious consideration for the College Football Playoff by their schedule. Did they learn their lesson?

Two days ago, the North Carolina Tar Heels released their 2016 Football Schedule. The opponents had been known for some time, but now we get some dates and times to go with them. Did the Tar Heels learn from their scheduling mistakes of last year? The answer is a mixed bag.

This piece is written with the assumption that the 2015-6 Tar Heels are trying to build on the success of last year’s team. As such, I will look at their schedule as if they want to be considered for playoff contention at the end of the year. This does not mean I think they will, I will make those decisions later on in August.

Good: Georgia on the schedule

North Carolina needed to improve the non-conference component of the schedule. So out goes South Carolina and in comes Georgia to play a neutral site game in the Georgia Dome to start the year. The last time the Heels played a neutral site Georgia Dome game, Marvin Austin had his tweets discovered. Hopefully it goes better this time.

This will be Kirby Smart’s first game as Georgia’s coach, and this should tell us how serious contender the Tar Heels are further down the road.

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    • Bad: Two D-IAAs on the schedule

    One of the criticisms of last year was that the Heels had not played a hard enough schedule. Delaware and North Carolina A&T were the prime targets of anyone looking to diminish the Tar Heels resume. So naturally that would be fixed, right?

    Not this year. The Tar Heels are playing James Madison early and doing the SEC thing by playing the Citadel late in the season to serve as an additional bye week. The Citadel would probably remind you that they beat South Carolina last year and those same Gamecocks had beaten the Heels. Still, the playoff committee isn’t going to give the Citadel credibility unless the school plays Alabama and beats them week 1.

    This just gives the committee a reason not to take you seriously by default and we need to stop doing it. Larry Fedora got his extension, remember?

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    • Good: Florida State on the schedule

    The Heels don’t have power over the Atlantic Division rotation. It’s two teams every year and one of those teams is always State. Last year the other was Wake Forest, which was not a big help in convincing doubters.

    If there was one team that stayed in front of the Heels in the Committee’s mind all last year, it was the Seminoles. Even after Clemson locked up the division, the Seminoles remained above the Heels until the Heels lost the ACC Championship Game and it didn’t matter anymore.

    Florida State is one of the few teams in the ACC that gets credit and status outside the conference. Beating them means something. A win against the Seminoles last year would have greatly increased the playoff resume of the Heels and possibly gotten them into the New Years Six games.

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    Bad: NC State as last game of the season

    This is not a knock on the quality of State. This is a knock on the idea of having Atlantic and Coastal teams play the week before the Championship when they could conceivably play again. Why does the ACC do this? If it was to get a better opponent for rivalry week, Duke has not been bad in a few years. Better yet there is no way that the Heels would play Duke again in the title game because they are in the same division. This is just counter to the point of having divisions.

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    North Carolina’s Schedule:

    Sept. 3 – Georgia – Atlanta, Ga.
    Sept. 10 – Illinois – Champaign, Ill.
    Sept. 17 – James Madison – Chapel Hill
    Sept. 24 – Pittsburgh – Chapel Hill
    Oct. 1 – Florida State – Tallahassee, Fla.
    Oct. 8 – Virginia Tech – Chapel Hill
    Oct. 15 – Miami – Coral Gables, Fla.
    Oct. 22 – Virginia – Charlottesville, Va.
    Nov. 5 – Georgia Tech – Chapel Hill
    Nov. 10 – Duke – Durham, N.C.
    Nov. 19 – Citadel – Chapel Hill
    Nov. 25 – NC State – Chapel Hill

    So the schedule is better than last year’s but still has a glaring problem. So see ya’ll in Atlanta on September 3!

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