NC State football has winning streak against first-time opponents
Last week, NC State football faced a traditional rival in East Carolina in the 32nd meeting of the intermittent in-state series, and has games scheduled later this year against its three most frequent opponents: Clemson (in the 90th meeting), North Carolina (112nd) and Wake Forest (115th).
The latter game is the second-longest continuous rivalry in college football, though that will end in coming years when the ACC switches its scheduling model after disbanding its two divisions.
And while it’s good to have so many traditional football rivals, in the last 25 years NC State has seen an increase in new faces on the opposing sidelines, with both Division I football subdivisions having grown, up to 131 now for the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and 130 members for the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
Saturday, Charleston Southern will become the 130th unique opponent NC State football has faced in its 130 years of playing college football, dating back to 1892.
The Buccaneers, in their 29th year competing in the Big South Conference, will be the Pack’s 26th new opponent since 2000, when head coach Chuck Amato and quarterback Philip Rivers made their debuts with a double-overtime victory over Arkansas State.
In the years since athletics directors Lee Fowler, Debbie Yow and Boo Corrigan have worked with football coaches Amato, Tom O’Brien and Dave Doeren to put new opponents on the schedule, though only Ohio State and Notre Dame are traditional college football powers.
Four of the first-time opponents (Minnesota, Notre Dame, South Florida and Rutgers) were scheduled in postseason bowl games, though Notre Dame was added as a semi-regular non-conference opponent in 2016.
Saturday’s game against the Buccaneers will be the last time for the foreseeable future the Wolfpack will play a new opponent from outside North Carolina’s borders. Only three first-time out-of-conference opponents are on the schedule over the next 15 years, and they are all from in-state: Campbell (2025), North Carolina A&T (2027) and Charlotte (2030).
However, this week’s announcement that Cincinnati has canceled a home-and-home series with the Wolfpack in 2023 and 2029 may mean another first-time opponent will appear next year.
On NC State’s list of 130 all-time opponents are some specious war-time foes, made up of all-star military recruits at various camps around the country. That’s how games against Hampton Roads (1919), North Carolina Pre-Flight (1942-43), Camp Davis (1943), Greenville Air Base (1943) and Newport News (1943) ended up in previous year’s results.
There was also a one-time rivalry before World War I with the decommissioned USS Franklin, which brought its new recruits south to play NC State and Wake Forest from 1909-13, parading players from all teams down Raleigh’s Hillsboro Street, mostly to impress the students at Raleigh’s three women’s colleges.
This weekend, the Wolfpack will be looking to extend its winning streak against first-time opponents to 14 in a row, which began with a 65-7 victory over Murray State in 2009 and was extended in 2019 with a 34-23 victory over Ball State.
Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at [email protected].
NC State Football First-Time Opponents Since 2000
| Team | Result | Score | Date |
| Arkansas State | W | 38-31 (2OT) | Sept. 2, 2000 |
| Minnesota | W | 38-30 | Dec. 28, 2000 (MicronPC.com Bowl in Orlando) |
| New Mexico | W | 34-14 | Aug. 24, 2002 |
| Massachusetts | W | 56-24 | Sept. 28, 2002 |
| Notre Dame | W | 28-6 | Jan. 1, 2003 (Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.) |
| Ohio State | L | 44-38 (3OT) | Sept. 13, 2003 |
| Connecticut | W | 31-24 | Oct. 11, 2003 |
| Eastern Kentucky | W | 54-10 | Sept. 17, 2005 |
| South Florida | W | 14-0 | Dec. 31, 2005 (Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte) |
| Akron | L | 20-17 | Sept. 9, 2006 |
| Central Florida | L | 25-22 | Sept. 1, 2007 |
| Rutgers | L | 29-23 | Dec. 29, 2008 (Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham) |
| Murray State | W | 65-7 | Sept. 12, 2009 |
| Gardner-Webb | W | 45-14 | Sept. 19, 2009 |
| Cincinnati | W | 30-19 | Sept. 16, 2010 |
| Liberty | W | 43-21 | Sept. 3, 2011 |
| South Alabama | W | 35-13 | Sept. 17, 2011 |
| Louisiana Tech | W | 40-14 | Aug. 31, 2013 |
| Central Michigan | W | 48-14 | Oct. 8, 2013 |
| Georgia Southern | W | 24-23 | Aug. 30, 2014 |
| Old Dominion | W | 46-34 | Sept. 6, 2014 |
| Troy | W | 49-21 | Sept. 1, 2015 |
| James Madison | W | 24-13 | Sept. 1, 2018 |
| Georgia State | W | 41-7 | Sept. 8, 2018 |
| Ball State | W | 34-23 | Sept. 21, 2019 |
| Charleston Southern | TBD | — | Sept. 10, 2022 |
