North Carolina vs. Rutgers

North Carolina and Rutgers have 6 meetings on file, the first in 1919; officially, Rutgers leads 3–⁠2; as played, 3–⁠3 in the games on file. Over the last 6 meetings it’s even at 3–⁠3. The NCAA vacated North Carolina’s win (2008); it doesn’t count officially. This page counts every game as it was played.

Official series
Rutgers leads 3–⁠2
North Carolina wins on file
3
Rutgers wins on file
3
Ties
0
Earliest on file
1919
Longest streak
3 North Carolina
Current streak
1 Rutgers
Last 10 meetings
even at 3–⁠3
Most recent
2014

The series at a glance

Every meeting by decade, colored by the winner
’0’1’2’3’4’5’6’7’8’9W–L
1910s0–⁠1
2000s1–⁠1
2010s2–⁠1
Average margin
12 points; 3 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
At North Carolina
1–⁠1 North Carolina’s record at home
At Rutgers
1–⁠2 Rutgers’s record at home
Neutral sites
0–⁠1 North Carolina first

Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.

Games that tell the story

  1. North Carolina’s biggest win2008: North Carolina 44, Rutgers 12by 32 points
  2. Rutgers’s biggest win2014: Rutgers 40, North Carolina 21by 19 points
  3. Upset2010: North Carolina 17, Rutgers 13North Carolina had a 33% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
  4. Upset2008: North Carolina 44, Rutgers 12North Carolina had a 34% chance, by our ratings before kickoff

Both programs through the years

End-of-season Elo ratings of North Carolina and Rutgers, 1919 on130015001700192019401960198020002020

Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.

Stars of the series

Biggest days

Ray Rice Rutgers31 carries, 201 yards, 3 TD2006 Rushing

Named most valuable

Rutgers RB Josh Hicks2014

Biggest days: the week’s best individual games by our big-days rule, from box scores (2004 on). Most valuable: as the games’ Wikipedia articles name them (CC BY-SA).

From the newspapers

  • The New-York tribune's story of the 1919 game: Rutgers Has an Easy Time With North Carolina Team Souihcrners Never In danger Big Red Team Goal aud Lose by 100

    1919 · New-York tribune, Oct 5, 1919

Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.

Every game

Dec 26, 2014Rutgers 40, North Carolina 21Ford FieldQuick Lane Bowl
Sep 10, 2011North Carolina 24, Rutgers 22at North Carolina
Sep 25, 2010North Carolina 17, Rutgers 13at Rutgers
Sep 11, 2008North Carolina 44, Rutgers 12vacatedat Rutgers
Sep 2, 2006Rutgers 21, North Carolina 16at North Carolina
Oct 4, 1919Rutgers 19, North Carolina 9at Rutgers

Every game is listed as played on the field; a win the NCAA later vacated is marked “vacated”; the official series above counts them the NCAA’s way.