The UNC-Duke rivalry, also referred to as the Carolina-Duke rivalry, the Duke-Carolina rivalry, The Battle of Tobacco Road, or The Battle of the Blues, is a fierce rivalry, particularly in men's college basketball, between the University of North Carolina and Duke University athletic teams. Considered one of the most intense rivalries in all of sports, a poll conducted by ESPN in 2000 ranked the basketball rivalry as the third greatest North American sports rivalry of all-time. blank">The 10 Greatest Rivalries "ESPN." 3 Jan 2000. The intensity of the rivalry is augmented by the proximity of the two universities, located only eight miles apart roughly along _U.S. Highway 15-501, and the dissimilar funding structures of the schools, with North Carolina a public state supported university and Duke being a private university.

Battling it out at least twice a year since January 24, 1920, Carolina has the series lead at 128-97. North Carolina and Duke routinely rank among the nation's best basketball teams. The games frequently determine the Atlantic Coast Conference champion - Duke and UNC have combined for 79% of the regular season titles and 58% of the tournament titles in the 53-year history of the conference. The final game of the regular season alternates between Chapel Hill and Durham and has been played in Cameron Indoor Stadium since 1940 and the Dean Smith Center since 1986. Duke has won three NCAA championships and has been in fourteen Final Fours, while North Carolina has won four NCAA championships (the team was also awarded a fifth national championship by the Helms Athletic Foundation in 1936 for their undefeated 1924 season, but some critics consider this to be a mythical national championship) and has appeared in sixteen Final Fours. Both schools are also two of the most victorious programs in NCAA men's basketball history. UNC is #2 all-time and Duke is #4.