UNC-TCU Kickoff Time Announced

North Carolina’s season-opening matchup with TCU in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic will kick off at noon ET (5 p.m. local time) on Saturday Aug. 29 from Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, the ACC announced Tuesday. The game will be televised by ESPN.

Last April, North Carolina announced that it would be headed across the pond to take on the Horned Frogs in the program’s first-ever international matchup. The 2026 meeting will mark the fifth all-time matchup between the two programs, and the first time the two schools have met in back to back seasons.

Last season, TCU handed North Carolina Tar Heels football a season-opening 48-14 loss inside Kenan Memorial Stadium on Labor Day night.

Previously, the matchup between the teams had been on the books for Sept. 5 in Fort Worth, as the second part of UNC’s home-and-home series with the Horned Frogs.

As part of the deal to move the 2026 opener to Dublin, the Tar Heels have negotiated compensation for TCU, as a means of accounting for the Horned Frogs losing a home date on their schedule, to account for the revenue that’s generated by a home football game.

This opener for UNC will mark the start of year two under Bill Belichick. The Tar Heels were 4-8 in his first campaign in Chapel Hill.

UNC will become the fourth current ACC team to play a college football game in Ireland, while 2026 marks the fourth consecutive season that the college football season has kicked off in Ireland, with Aviva Stadium hosting Iowa State and Kansas State in 2025, Georgia Tech and Florida State in 2024, and Notre Dame and Navy in 2023.