The NC State football team released its schedule for the 2017 season, the ACC announced Tuesday. The most notable matchups include three home games that feature a primetime contest against a Heisman winner, a matchup against the National Champion and a visit from the team’s biggest rival.
The team will begin with three nonconference opponents. The Pack will open by participating in this year’s Belk College Kickoff Game at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte against South Carolina Sept. 2, which will be nationally televised. The Wolfpack will then head back to the confines of Carter Finley Stadium for two straight home games against Marshall and Furman on Sept. 9 and 16, respectively.
The Pack’s first conference game of the season will take place at Florida State Sept. 23, while the first ACC home game will come against Syracuse Sept. 30. State will follow that up with its second-straight home game, hosting 2016 Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson and the Louisville squad in a Thursday night game Oct. 5.
The Wolfpack follows the primetime game with its cross-divisional opponent, Pittsburgh, on the road Oct. 14. Following a bye, it will take on Notre Dame as its final nonconference opponent of the regular season for the second-straight year, this time away from home Oct. 28.
NC State will follow up its trip to South Bend with a home game Nov. 4 against the defending National Champion Clemson Tigers in the annual Textile Bowl, looking to avenge last season’s heartbreaking loss in Death Valley.
The Pack will then wrap up the road portion of its schedule, heading out to take on Wake Forest and Boston College Nov. 11 and 18, respectively. NC State defeated the Demon Deacons at Carter Finley last year, but fell to the Eagles in one of the most disappointing losses of its 2016 slate.
The Wolfpack ends its regular season the same way it has the past three year: against archrival UNC-Chapel Hill on Thanksgiving weekend Nov. 25. After upsetting the Tar Heels on the road in 2016, the Pack will face them at Carter-Finley in 2017; although it has had more luck on the road against the Heels in head coach Dave Doeren’s tenure.
