Athletes and sports teams from North Carolina compete across an array of professional and amateur levels of competition, along with athletes who compete at the World and Olympic levels in their respective sport. Major league professional teams based in North Carolina include teams that compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Soccer (MLS), and National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). The state is also home to NASCAR Cup Series races. At the collegiate and university level, there are several North Carolina schools in various conferences across an array of divisions. North Carolina also has many minor league baseball teams. There are also a number of indoor football, indoor soccer, minor league basketball, and minor league ice hockey teams based throughout the state.
Major league professional teams Team League Metro area Stadium Founded Charlotte Hornets National Basketball Association Charlotte Spectrum Center 1988 Carolina Panthers National Football League Charlotte Bank of America Stadium 1995 Carolina Hurricanes National Hockey League Raleigh Lenovo Center 1972 (based in North Carolina since 1997) North Carolina Courage National Women's Soccer League Cary/Raleigh First Horizon Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park 2017 Charlotte FC Major League Soccer Charlotte Bank of America Stadium 2019 (joined in 2022) Carolina Chaos Premier Lacrosse League Charlotte American Legion Memorial Stadium 2019 (based in North Carolina since 2024) Carolina Ascent FC USL Super League Charlotte American Legion Memorial Stadium 2023 (started play in 2024)
Baseball Though it has never been home to a Major League Baseball club, North Carolina is home to numerous minor league and collegiate summer league teams. Many colleges with athletic programs also field baseball teams.
Team City Level League Founded MLB affiliation Charlotte Knights Charlotte AAA International League 1976 Chicago White Sox Durham Bulls Durham AAA International League 1902 Tampa Bay Rays Asheville Tourists Asheville High A South Atlantic League 1976 Houston Astros Greensboro Grasshoppers Greensboro High-A South Atlantic League 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates Winston-Salem Dash Winston-Salem High-A South Atlantic League 1945 Chicago White SoxWilson WarbirdsWilsonSingle-ACarolina League2026Milwaukee Brewers Fayetteville Woodpeckers Fayetteville Single-A Carolina League 2017 Houston Astros Hickory Crawdads Hickory Single-A Carolina League 1977 Texas Rangers Kannapolis Cannon Ballers Kannapolis Single-A Carolina League 1995 Chicago White Sox Gastonia Honey Hunters Gastonia Independent Atlantic League 2021 High Point Rockers High Point Independent Atlantic League 2018 Burlington Sock Puppets Burlington Collegiate Appalachian League 2021 Asheboro ZooKeepers Asheboro Collegiate Coastal Plain League 1999 Edenton Steamers Edenton Collegiate Tidewater Summer League 1998 Forest City Owls Forest City Collegiate Coastal Plain League 2007The Owls moved to Forest City in 2008. For the previous season, they played in Spartanburg, South Carolina, as the Spartanburg Stingers. Gastonia Grizzlies Gastonia Collegiate Coastal Plain League 2002 Holly Springs Salamanders Holly Springs Collegiate Coastal Plain League 2015 Morehead City Marlins Morehead City Collegiate Coastal Plain League 2010 High Point-Thomasville HiToms Thomasville Collegiate Coastal Plain League 1999 Wilmington Sharks Wilmington Collegiate Coastal Plain League 1997 Wilson Tobs Wilson Collegiate Coastal Plain League 1997 +Former TeamsTeamCity Level League Founded MLB Affiliation Carolina MudcatsZebulonSingle-ACarolina League1978-2025Milwaukee Brewers
Notes
Basketball The first successful major professional sports team to be created in North Carolina were the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA), which began play in the 1988–89 season.
In 2004, the NBA added the Charlotte Bobcats franchise, two years after the city lost the Hornets to New Orleans. The Charlotte team plays its home games at the Spectrum Center. The Bobcats assumed the Hornets nickname after the conclusion of the 2013–14 season; the New Orleans team had changed its name to the New Orleans Pelicans at the start of that season. By agreement between the NBA, Hornets, and Pelicans, the history and records of the 1988–2002 Hornets were assumed by the current Hornets franchise.
Prior to that, the Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association (ABA) played in various North Carolina cites (playing in the ABA for five seasons, 1969–1974). Former Charlotte Bobcats coach Larry Brown started his coaching career as head coach of the Cougars.
Professional
North Carolina's first professional basketball team was the American Basketball Association's Carolina Cougars. The Cougars played in North Carolina between 1969 and 1974 and split their games between the Greensboro Coliseum, the original Charlotte Coliseum and Raleigh's Dorton Arena.
Following the Cougars' move to St. Louis it would be fourteen years before professional basketball would return to the Old North State when Charlotte was awarded the NBA's 24th franchise, the Charlotte Hornets. The Hornets played at the Charlotte Coliseum before moving to New Orleans following a bitter dispute between team ownership and the city over funding for a new arena. Two years after the Hornets decamped the Queen City was named as the home of the expansion Charlotte Bobcats who would play two seasons at the Coliseum before taking up residence at a new venue now known as Spectrum Center in Uptown. After the 2012–13 NBA season, New Orleans changed their franchise name to the New Orleans Pelicans. The franchise rights to the Hornets name and logo, plus the history of the original Charlotte Hornets, were given back to the city of Charlotte after the 2013–14 NBA season, at the same time the Charlotte Bobcats became the Charlotte Hornets. North Carolina Tar Heels legend Michael Jordan is the majority owner of the Hornets.
In 2016, Greensboro was awarded the Hornets' NBA G League team, the Greensboro Swarm. The Swarm won their first NBA G League championship in 2026.
College North Carolina is home to what some consider the best rivalry in American sports, North Carolina vs. Duke. Chapel Hill (UNC) and Durham (Duke) are only 8 miles apart. This rivalry reaches its climax in basketball but often spills over to other sports. North Carolina State and Wake Forest are also considered major rivals of the Blue Devils and Tar Heels, for more on the four-way rivalry see Tobacco Road.
Other Division I teams in the state include the Appalachian State Mountaineers, Campbell Fighting Camels, Charlotte 49ers, Davidson Wildcats, East Carolina Pirates, Elon Phoenix, Gardner–Webb Runnin' Bulldogs, High Point Panthers, North Carolina A&T Aggies, North Carolina Central Eagles, Queens Royals, UNC Asheville Bulldogs, UNC Greensboro Spartans, UNC Wilmington Seahawks, and Western Carolina Catamounts.
Although North Carolina did not have a major-league professional sports franchise until the 1980s, the state has long been known as a hotbed of college basketball. Since the formation of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in 1953, the conference's North Carolina member schools have excelled in conference play. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), Duke University, and North Carolina State University are all located within of one another, creating fierce rivalries. Wake Forest University, another ACC member, was located in the town of Wake Forest, also within the Raleigh–Durham area, until its 1956 move to Winston-Salem, less than to the west of these schools. UNC has won six NCAA national championships in men's basketball (1957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009, 2017) and one in women's basketball (1994). Duke has won five NCAA men's championships (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, 2015), and NC State has won two (1974 and 1983). The Duke-UNC basketball rivalry has been called one of the best rivalries in sports and the two schools are often contenders for the national title. In addition to the ACC schools, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte went to the NCAA's Final Four in 1977, and Davidson College near Charlotte went to the NCAA's "Elite Eight" in 1968, 1969, and 2008.
North Carolina schools have also won multiple NCAA Division II basketball national championships. In 1967, Winston-Salem State University, led by future NBA star Earl Monroe and coached by the legendary Clarence "Big House" Gaines, was the first school in the state to win the Division II championship. In 1989, North Carolina Central University, which is now a Division I member, brought the title to the state a second time; winning the championship game by 27 points, which remains the largest margin of victory in its history. And in 2007, Barton College in Wilson returned the title to the state a third time.
North Carolina has a large number of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) with long athletic traditions and deep fan bases as well. Ten HBCUs participate in NCAA college sports in North Carolina, with all but North Carolina A&T State University (the largest HBCU in the U.S.) playing in either the Division II Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) or the Division I Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). A&T had long been a MEAC member, but changed conferences twice in the 2020s, first to the Big South Conference in 2021 and then the Coastal Athletic Association in 2022 (though the football team did not join the CAA's football conference until 2023). Both the CIAA Men's Basketball Tournament and MEAC men's basketball tournament have been held numerous times in cities across North Carolina. The Aggie-Eagle rivalry between A&T and North Carolina Central University (the state's second-largest HBCU) remains a fierce rivalry across numerous sports and has followed the teams through many decades and across several league moves.
Football
History of North Carolina football The first major professional sports league football team in North Carolina came in 1974, when the New York Stars of the World Football League was relocated to Charlotte in the middle of the season and renamed to the Charlotte Hornets (although the team was referred to as the Charlotte Stars for the first game in Charlotte). The National Football League (NFL) is represented by the Carolina Panthers, who began play in 1995, and call Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium home. North Carolina was also home to the Charlotte Rage and the Carolina Cobras of the Arena Football League.
College
College football is very popular in North Carolina, with many colleges fielding teams. Only two states have more universities fielding teams at the NCAA's highest level, Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). North Carolina has seven FBS teams in all—the North Carolina Tar Heels, NC State Wolfpack, Duke Blue Devils, Wake Forest Demon Deacons, East Carolina Pirates, Appalachian State Mountaineers, and Charlotte 49ers. An additional seven field teams in Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), as well as many schools at the Division II and III levels. Before moving to FBS and the Sun Belt Conference in 2014, Appalachian State won FCS national titles in 2005, 2006 and 2007.