South Carolina will kick off another college football season when the Gamecocks host North Carolina on Aug. 29 in a game televised by ESPN.

This will be Steve Spurrier's ninth season as South Carolina's coach, and he will have opened seven of them on Thursday night ESPN telecasts with victories in the first six. The Gamecocks opened last season on a Thursday night, topping Vanderbilt 17-13 in Nashville.

Vanderbilt's 2013 opener against visiting Ole Miss had been mentioned as a candidate for ESPN's first Thursday slot.

ESPN released a schedule Monday of Atlantic Coast Conference games it will televise during the week. The cable network will telecast Florida State at Pittsburgh on Labor Day night and will have four ACC head-to-head Thursday games throughout the season.

Among those will be Clemson at North Carolina State on Sept. 19, Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech on Sept. 26 and Georgia Tech at Clemson on Nov. 14. The Yellow Jackets are having to play at Clemson two straight years due to the ACC adjusting its schedules with the additions of Pittsburgh and Syracuse.