A breakdown of NC State’s 2025 football schedule

By Noah Fleischman

While NC State men’s basketball was battling it out with No. 2 Duke on Monday night inside Cameron Indoor Stadium, the ACC released the full football schedule for each of its 17 member programs in a made-for-TV event.

The Wolfpack knew which opponents it would host — and had its first six dates locked in — before the release, but now its entire 2025 slate is ready to go. NC State, which went 6-7 with a Military Bowl appearance this past season, is looking to win at least eight games under coach Dave Doeren for the seventh time in a nine-season span. 

Here’s a look at the Pack’s 2025 schedule, including its toughest stretch and biggest challenge going into a new campaign.

Easiest part

In all honesty, it’s the Wolfpack’s first three games of the campaign. 

NC State opens the year with East Carolina in a rematch of the 2024 Military Bowl, a game the Pirates were able to win 26-21 to send the Pack to a 6-7 mark. While ECU won the most recent meeting, NC State has dominated the series when it is played in Raleigh. The Wolfpack holds a 16-7 mark against the Pirates at home, including a 34-6 win over ECU to open the 2019 season. This game presents an opportunity for the Pack to avenge the bowl loss, while it will also debut its new-look offense under first-year offensive coordinator Kurt Roper. 

After its season opener, which is on a Thursday night, the Pack will have a few extra days to prepare for Virginia in a nonconference matchup. The Cavaliers are expected to look a lot different from their 5-7 record in 2024, which included a three-game losing streak to cap the year. UVA will open the season against Coastal Carolina the Saturday prior, giving NC State an advantage when it comes to rest and game preparation. 

Rounding out the opening trio of games is a road trip to Wake Forest on a short week, the team’s second Thursday night game in the first three weeks. The Demon Deacons are led by first-year coach Jake Dickert, who made the cross-country move from Washington State this offseason. Wake Forest will have a brand-new roster moving into the 2025 season, but NC State will have a chance to look at two games of tape to prepare. The Pack holds a 69-43-6 advantage against the Demon Deacons in the all-time series, including a 26-6 win in its last trip to Winston-Salem during the 2023 season.

Toughest stretch

The final six games of NC State’s schedule is a gauntlet — road trips to Notre Dame, Pitt and Miami with home dates against Georgia Tech, Florida State and North Carolina. The combined 2024 record of the Pack’s first six opponents was 35-40, but that takes an uptick to 46-34 when you look at the final stretch — five of them were bowl-eligible. 

NC State’s trek to face off with Notre Dame, the College Football Playoff runner-up this past season, will be the team’s seventh straight game. The Wolfpack doesn’t have its first open week until after this game — the third consecutive year it has to wait until at least seven games for a break. The Irish play a physical brand of football, and a banged-up roster isn’t the best-case scenario for going into the hostile environment of Notre Dame Stadium. 

The Pack will stay on the road to play at Pitt after its first bye week before Georgia Tech visits Carter-Finley Stadium. NC State holds a two-game winning streak when playing at Pitt with victories over the Panthers during the 2017 and 2020 seasons. But the Pack, meanwhile, has lost four of its last five games against the Yellow Jackets, including a 30-29 defeat in Atlanta this past season.

NC State will then close the season at Miami and then home games with Florida State (on a Friday) and North Carolina after its second open week of the year. The Canes are expected to take a step forward with Georgia transfer quarterback Carson Beck under center, while the Seminoles and Tar Heels will most likely give the Wolfpack a tough game on the field. 

This six-game stretch could make or break the Pack’s season. If NC State wants to be in contention for the ACC Championship at the end of the season, it will have to go through a tough slate to get there. But if it starts dropping games, bowl eligibility could be tough if that snowballs against the higher-level competition down the stretch of the year.

Biggest challenge

The program’s biggest challenge in 2025 is the fact that NC State has to wait seven games for its first open week — again. The Pack had to play eight games until a bye this past season, which resulted in a 4-4 record by the time it could take a breather and rest some of its injured players. 

NC State, which relied heavily upon redshirt freshman running back Hollywood Smothers over the last six regular season games, would likely have welcomed an earlier open date as he missed two games with a groin injury in the middle of the season. Instead, it had to work through that without him until he was healthy — and proved to be the team’s most explosive player. 

While the first open week is late again, NC State is in a similar situation where it will play two games before it has its second open week before it closes the year with its final three contests. The Pack went 2-2 down the stretch after the open weeks last season, but when it had a Week 8 bye week in 2023, NC State finished the season on a five-game winning streak. 

Final Takeaway

If the Wolfpack can navigate the first half of the schedule with a 5-1 or 4-2 record, it would set the team up for an opportunity to make strides down the stretch with a pair of open dates surrounded by its toughest opponents. A path to the College Football Playoff is there, but only if NC State can move through its conference schedule unblemished (possibly one loss) while a win at Notre Dame would be key. 

But it’s a tough task. It will most likely depend on how NC State’s new coordinators are able to take both sides of the ball to the next level. If that happens, the Wolfpack could control its own destiny after the first six games. If not, NC State could be playing to just reach bowl eligibility — like it did in 2024.

Full schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Location
1	Aug. 28	ECU (Thurs.)	Raleigh
2	Sept. 6	Virginia (non-conference)	Raleigh
3	Sept. 11	at Wake Forest	Winston-Salem, N.C.
4	Sept. 20	at Duke	Durham, N.C.
5	Sept. 27	Virginia Tech	Raleigh
6	Oct. 4	Campbell	Raleigh
7	Oct. 11	at Notre Dame	South Bend, Ind.
8	BYE	BYE	BYE
9	Oct. 25	at Pitt	Pittsburgh
10	Nov. 1	Georgia Tech	Raleigh
11	BYE	BYE	BYE
12	Nov. 15	at Miami	Miami
13	Nov. 21	Florida State (Fri.)	Raleigh
14	Nov. 29	UNC	Raleigh