A Look At The Ups And Downs Of The ACC/Big Ten Challenge

It was fun while it lasted.

So much for that.

Since the autumn of 1999 the ACC-Big Ten Challenge has been a fixture on the nonconference schedule, a three-day, post-Thanksgiving feast where the competing leagues take the measure of themselves and each other. The series has been around as long as most college seniors have been alive, so long that Michigan State’s Tom Izzo is the only man who’s led his teams into the high-level fray each of the 23 years it’s been in existence.

But those orchestrated pairings, generally matching teams of supposedly comparable strength, are soon to be a thing of the past.

Without much warning, or official explanation, the ACC is switching Challenge partners. In the fluctuating spirit of the times, starting next year the ACC will pair with its old Southern Conference partners in an ACC-SEC Challenge.

Not coincidentally both southern leagues have ESPN-affiliated networks, in contrast to the Big Something. And here Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, a late arrival on the scene, had just added his typically inelegant observations to stoke passions in the vanishing Challenge series.

Commenting on the Big Ten (or Whatever) having only two of nine NCAA entrants survive to the Sweet 16 in 2022 (Purdue and Michigan), where both lost, the entertainingly loose-lipped Boeheim opined, “If you can’t play in the tournament, then you’re just not good.” You’ll recall that the ACC had two teams, Duke and UNC, reach the Final Four.

Boeheim’s comment took a bit of chutzpah, considering his team failed to even earn an NCAA bid, posting his first career losing overall record at 16-17, 9-11 in the ACC.

Maybe it says nothing about either league, but the fact remains the so-called Big Ten has been dominating the Challenge since Syracuse and its Big East ilk joined the party. The ACC has won only two of the last eight editions, which might be another good reason to switch partners.

The ACC reveled in the early results, winning the overall victory count in each of the first 10 Challenges. More recently the tables have turned – the Big Whatever emerged triumphant the last three years and eight times overall since 2009. The event ended in ties in 2012, 2013 and 2018, with the ACC finishing on top in 2016 and 2017.

Thanks to its early dominance, the ACC retains an overall 12-8-3 edge, a .522 winning percentage.

One major change this year is that Mike Krzyzewski, a Midwest native, is no longer on the sidelines, where his teams were 19-4 in Challenge competition. Two of Duke’s losses came in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Simply take Coach K’s Blue Devils out of the equation and the interleague competition tilts markedly, given that the ACC held a one-victory edge five times and in three other years the contestants were tied.

Only Duke, Virginia (13-8) and Wake Forest (13-6) have enjoyed decided advantages in Challenge play, and only the Blue Devils enjoyed that advantage under a single coach. Those three schools are the only ones with 13 or more Challenge victories.

No Big Ten team has more than a dozen wins; Minnesota and Wisconsin are both 12-11. At 12-9 Purdue, which handled Duke easily last week, is the most successful Challenge contestant from the Big Whatever; it plays at wobbly Florida State this go-round.

Interestingly, ACC deserter Maryland was 10-5 before leaving and 1-7 since switching sides and having to face teams that were its former colleagues.

Because the leagues don’t have an equal number of members, one ACC team sat out the old Challenge. Usually it’s the worst performer from the previous season. This year that’s NC State.

No team will be excluded starting with the 2025-26 basketball season; the SEC expects to add Texas and Oklahoma on July 1, 2025. Can’t wait for resumption of the traditional BC-Oklahoma clash.“There’s great excitement for the first annual ACC/SEC Challenge next season,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, Ph.D., opined before most anyone outside the leagues’ inner circles knew of the change.

The SEC previously mounted a little-noted Challenge series with the Big 12.

ACC and SEC teams already play annual Challenge-like games with in-state rivals in Louisville-Kentucky, Clemson-South Carolina, Florida State-Florida, and Georgia Tech-Georgia. Presumably those will remain separate, stand-alone engagements.

The leagues also announced a concomitant women’s ACC/SEC Challenge series as if it was a new thing. There’s been a widely ignored Big Ten version for 15 years, counting 2022-23.

Duke, FSU, and UNC are the only ACC members who’ve participated in the old Challenge every year.