Dates announced for ACC/SEC Challenge in men's, women's basketball

The matchups for this year’s ACC/SEC Challenge in men’s and women’s basketball were announced on Wednesday. On Thursday, the leagues followed up with an announcement of the dates for each of the matchups.

The games will take place between December 2 and December 4. Each sport will have about half of the games played on one day, followed by the second half of the games played on the subsequent day.

Let’s dig into the matchups and the dates below. Here is how the games split out.

Men’s Basketball ACC/SEC Challenge

Tuesday, December 2

Florida at Duke
North Carolina at Kentucky
Oklahoma at Wake Forest
Texas A&M at Pittsburgh
Miami at Ole Miss
Virginia Tech at South Carolina
Tennessee at Syracuse
Missouri at Notre Dame
Georgia at Florida State

Wednesday, December 3

NC State at Auburn
Louisville at Arkansas
SMU at Vanderbilt
Clemson at Alabama
Mississippi State at Georgia Tech
LSU at Boston College
Virginia at Texas

Women’s Basketball ACC/SEC Challenge

Wednesday, December 3

Kentucky at Miami
Tennessee at Stanford
NC State at Oklahoma
Georgia at Florida State
Auburn at Syracuse
Georgia Tech at Texas A&M
Virginia at Vanderbilt

Thursday, December 4

LSU at Duke
South Carolina at Louisville
Florida at Virginia Tech
Notre Dame at Ole Miss
North Carolina at Texas
Clemson at Alabama
Arkansas at SMU
Pittsburgh at Mississippi State
Cal at Missouri

Men’s challenge highlighted by marquee matchups

This year’s ACC/SEC Challenge on the men’s side is highlighted by Florida at Duke, North Carolina at Kentucky and Louisville at Arkansas. All three should be marquee matchups.

Florida and Duke were two of four No. 1 seeds that made the Final Four last season, marking just the second time in NCAA Tournament history (2008) that all four No. 1 seeds made the Final Four. Florida defeated Auburn in the Final Four and went on to beat Houston 65-63 in the National Championship game. Duke fell to Houston 70-67 in the Final Four after blowing a nine-point lead with three minutes remaining.

Kentucky and North Carolina will mark a battle of the blue bloods, as the ‘Cats are second all-time with 2,412 wins and the Tar Heels are third all-time with 2,395 wins. These two historical programs have not played at Rupp Arena since 2015, when the eventual 38-1 Wildcats took down the Heels 84-70.

Finally, Louisville vs. Arkansas will mark some interesting coaching matchups. Former Kentucky head coach John Calipari will coach against his former rival, Louisville, for the first time since 2024. As head coach at Kentucky, Calipari was 13-3 against the Cardinals. Arkansas assistant coach Kenny Payne will also face his former team, where he won a National Championship in 1986 and coached from 2022-24. Under Payne, Louisville went just 12-52 in two seasons before he was let go.

Other intriguing matchups include 2025 Final Four runner-ups Auburn against NC State and first-year head coach Will Wade, a historical football rivalry between Alabama and Clemson and first-year head coach Ryan Odom at Virginia against first-year head coach Sean Miller at Texas.

On3’s Daniel Hager also contributed to this report.