ACC-Big 10 Challenge to be replaced by ACC-SEC Challenge in 2023-24

Nov 28, 2022 - 6:47 PM

With the Big 10’s TV deal with ESPN set to expire after this season, this week will mark the end of the ACC-Big 10 Challenge.

Official word came Monday morning from Andy Katz.

Played yearly since 1999, the ACC-Big 10Challenge is by far the longest-running inter-conference college basketball challenge series. Heading into this year’s event, the ACC leads 12–8–3 in the series and 144–121 in overall games.

The good news? The ACC, SEC and ESPN also announced Monday morning the formation of the ACC/SEC Challenge for men’s and women’s basketball, which will begin as part of the 2023-24 season. Each one of the 28 games (30 starting in 2025-26) will be carried on an ESPN platform and each conference will host an equal number of home games.

Matchups and game times for next season will be announced at a later date.

“The future ACC/SEC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Challenges will be outstanding events for our student-athletes, member institutions and fans,” said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, Ph.D. “The SEC, led by Greg Sankey, and our partners at ESPN have been terrific, and there’s great excitement for the first annual ACC/SEC Challenge next season. As part of this announcement, we’d like to acknowledge the Big Ten for its partnership on the ACC/B1G Challenge that spanned more than 20 years.”

While the Big Ten has historically (and recently) been a better basketball conference than the SEC, this is still a pretty good deal for the ACC and its members. Plus, for us, there’s certainly an added rivalry element that would make beating the SEC in this thing a little bit sweeter than beating the Big Ten did.