Tobacco Road is a term used in college sports, mainly basketball, for the four rival universities of North Carolina that play in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
The Tobacco Road teams represent the following universities: North Carolina, Duke, and NC State lie in the Research Triangle and are separated by no more than 25 miles (40 km).
The universities' proximity and membership in the ACC, coupled with their reputation for academic prestige and as hubs for research and innovation, has created a natural rivalry among students, fans, and alumni.
The four schools have a combined 13 men's national basketball championships (UNC has 7 (6 NCAA), Duke has 5, NC State has 2).
The third time was UNC’s victory over Duke in the Final Four of the 2022 NCAA Tournament in New Orleans.
The fourth time was NC State’s win over Duke on Easter Sunday in the Elite Eight of the 2024 NCAA Tournament in Dallas.
North Carolina lost 79–73 to Kansas, coached by former Tar Heel assistant and future head coach Roy Williams, while Duke upset previously undefeated UNLV 79–77 in a rematch of the previous year's championship game, which UNLV had won by 30 in Denver.
Though the Tobacco Road rivalry predominantly relates to basketball, football between these programs is also competitive.
Wake Forest and Duke were "permanent cross-division" rivals, meaning that they played every year regardless of division, as did UNC and NC State.
After the ACC divisions were abolished in 2023, a protected rivalry scheduling system was adopted.
Only Duke and North Carolina currently compete in men's and women's lacrosse, though NC State had a program in the 1970s and 1980s.
[7] Duke and North Carolina have met 81 times, with UNC leading the rivalry 44–37 through 2024.
As of 2020, the four schools have combined to win 73 NCAA team national championships in both men's and women's sports.