Gonzaga and North Carolina to begin home-and-home series in 2018-19

The Gonzaga Bulldogs and North Carolina Tar Heels are going to play a home-and-home series starting in Chapel Hill next season, Jon Rothstein reported on Friday.

This news is beyond huge. The last time the two teams met was in the national championship game. Attracting a team like North Carolina to Spokane is going to be a huge get, and shows that Mark Few is still as serious as possible about making a difficult non-conference schedule.

This is exciting to see for multiple reasons—but perhaps the biggest is we've started to see an inroads into Gonzaga entering the realm of those elite squads in the nation. One of the many difficulties mid major schools face in scheduling is getting the return favor. North Carolina probably has no problems having Saint Mary's travel across the country, but they most likely won't be making that trip themselves.

Gonzaga has now secured big games at The Kennel. This year, Gonzaga and Creighton started their home-and-home. In 2015 and 2016, Arizona and Gonzaga exchanged vows. All of these games are only a good thing for Gonzaga to be exposed to, both in terms of preparing for the season, and for seeding come March.

Gonzaga may not have to travel everywhere to play, but it is great to see they will still play anyone.