If you're looking for more teams from Power Five conferences on future Gophers nonconference football schedules, one arrived Wednesday with the announcement that Minnesota will play North Carolina in 2023 and 2024.
The Gophers will visit Chapel Hill, N.C., on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023, and will play host to the Tar Heels in 2024 on either Thursday, Aug. 29 or Saturday, Aug. 31. This will be the first meeting between the Gophers and North Carolina, a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Tar Heels have played in bowl games in four of the past five seasons under coach Larry Fedora, including an 11-3 record in 2015. But they fell to 3-9 in 2017.
Minnesota was scheduled to play North Carolina in the 2013 and '14 seasons in a series that was arranged by former athletic director Joel Maturi and former coach Tim Brewster. But former coach Jerry Kill, who succeeded Brewster, urged then-athletic director Norwood Teague to drop the series, which cost the program $800,000 for the buyout.
With the addition of the Tar Heels, the Gophers now have home-and-home series with Fresno State (2018, '19), Brigham Young (2020, '25), Colorado (2020, '21) and Mississippi State (2026, '27). Under a 12-game schedule that includes nine Big Ten contests, the Gophers have open dates for one nonconference opponent in 2022, '23 and '25, and two nonconference opponents in 2024, '26 and '27.
Here's a look at the nonconference opponents the Gophers have scheduled in the future (home games unless listed):
2018
Aug. 30: New Mexico State
Sept. 8: Fresno State
Sept. 15: Miami (Ohio)
2019
Aug. 29: South Dakota State
Sept. 7: at Fresno State
Sept. 14: Georgia Southern
2020
Sept. 3: Florida Atlantic
Sept. 12: Tennessee Tech
Sept. 26: Brigham Young
2021
Sept. 11: Miami (Ohio)
Sept. 18: at Colorado
Sept. 25: Bowling Green
2022
Sept. 1: New Mexico State
Sept. 17: Colorado
2023
Sept. 9: Eastern Michigan
Sept. 16: at North Carolina
2024
Aug. 29 or 31: North Carolina
2025
Sept. 6: Bowling Green
Sept. 20: at Brigham Young
2026
Sept. 12: Mississippi State
2027
Sept. 11: at Mississippi State
