2023 UNC Football Bowl Projections

The promising start to the North Carolina Tar Heels’ season continued in a downward direction with a 39-20 rout at the hands of NC State. Next year North Carolina sports betting will be in place and you can wager on the rivalry.

The Tar Heels enter the bowl season with an 8-4 record overall and a 4-4 mark in Atlantic Coast Conference play, with consecutive losses to NC State and Clemson (31-20) to close out the year. The late-season swoon, you would think, would affect quarterback Drake Maye’s NFL draft odds.

We won’t know for sure where UNC will play until this year’s bowl games are announced on Sunday, but we can lend a few guesses about the destination. Here’s where the team at BetCarolina.com – your source for N.C. sports betting apps - sees UNC playing in 2023:  

Hypothetical Odds of UNC’s 2023 Bowl Game

BowlLocationConference OpponentOdds% Chance
Gator BowlJacksonville, Fla.Big 10 or SEC-20066.7%
Sun BowlEl Paso, TXPac 12+25028.6%
Other+90010%

 

Where Will UNC Wind Up This Bowl Season?

The overwhelming favorite to land UNC this bowl season appears to be the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, which pits teams from the SEC and either the ACC or Big Ten on Dec. 29.   

The North Florida bowl game staple has the top odds of hosting UNC, coming in at -200 to land the Tar Heels.

The only other landing spot that our team foresees as a possibility is El Paso’s Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl, which clocks in at +250. North Carolina hasn’t played a bowl game in Jacksonville since 1997, which happened to be the last season of coach Mack Brown’s first stint with the Tar Heels, while UNC’s last trip to El Paso came in 2016. 

That year, the Tar Heels fell to the Stanford Cardinal, 25-23, under then head coach Larry Fedora. That capped off  an 8-5 campaign in Chapel Hill — which is where UNC will wind up if they don’t pull off a victory in whatever bowl game they play in this season.

For more on UNC football and basketball odds, keep a close eye on BetCarolina.com.

Staff writer Christopher Boan contributed to this report.

Previous UNC Bowl Game Results

SeasonBowl GameOpponentResultFinal Record
2022-23Holiday BowlOregonL 28-279-5
2021-22 Duke’s Mayo BowlSouth CarolinaL 38-216-7
2020-21Orange BowlTexas A&ML 41-278-4
2019-20Military BowlTempleW 55-137-6
2018-19Not Eligible2-9

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