Matches set for the 23rd annual Big Ten / ACC basketball challenge

ROSEMONT, ILL. Matches for the 2021 Big Ten / ACC Mens Basketball Challenge, now in its 23rd year, will be set and played on Monday, Nov. 29, Tuesday, Nov. 30, and Wednesday, Dec. 1. The challenge matches all 14 big Ten teams against 14 ACC teams. Hint times and network configurations will be announced later. ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU combine television for all 14 matches in the event, which is equivalent to the best basketball programs in colleges playing for the Commissioner’s Cup. All games can also be streamed through the ESPN app.

Challenge highlights and notes:

• Big Ten won the 2020 Challenge with a 7-5 record, marking the second year in a row that Big Ten won the ACC. Last year, two challenges from 14 races were not played due to COVID-19 concerns. In 2019, Big Ten won the challenge with an 8-6 record. ACC leads the all-time series 12-7-3, the last victory came in 2017. Big Ten has won seven of the last 12 challenges from 2009, and ACC has won its victories in 2016 and 2017, and conferences that share the challenge three times ( 2012, 2013 and 2018).

• During the 2020 challenge, Big Ten secured four of the top 25 wins from the ACC: Illinois won the No. 10/11 Duke at the time. to 15/15 Virginia Tech and Wisconsin dropped the then No. 23/22 Louisville.

• Illinois 83-68 won 10/11 at the time Duke in the Challenge marked the second of two Big Ten wins for the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium in 2020. Earlier in the season, the state of Michigan set off and defeated. Duke 75-69. In addition to the ACC, Big Ten became the first conference to win two games at Cameron Indoor Stadium in the same season after the Southern Conference in 1981-82.

• This year, the Challenge has 16 teams competing in the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championships in 2021. Big Ten led all conferences with nine offers in recent years in the NCAA tournament, while ACC and Big 12 finished second with seven teams. The challenge sees a rematch between Rutgers and Clemson, who met in the first round of last year for the NCAA tournament. The Scarlet Knights beat the Tigers 60-56 to get their first NCAA tournament win since 1983.

2021 Big Ten / ACC Men’s Basketball Challenge Schedule

Monday, November 29th

Notre Dame in Illinois
Iowa Virginia

Tuesday, November 30th

Indiana in Syracuse
Minnesota in Pittsburgh
Northwest Wake Forest
Duke of Ohio
The state of Purdue, Florida
Clemson at Rutgers

On Wednesday, December 1st

Virginia Tech in Maryland
Michigan in North Carolina
Louisville in the state of Michigan
In the state of Nebraska NC
In the state of Miami Penn
Wisconsin, Georgia Tech