The 2021 Big Ten-ACC Challenge Pairings and Dates are out

The 2021 Big Ten/ACC Challenge pairings have been announced for the men’s teams. The games will occur from Monday, Nov. 29 through Wednesday, Dec. 1. Game start times and broadcast information will come at a later date.

The annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge dates back to 1999 and is one of the premier non-conference basketball events in college hoops. While the Big Ten is quite a ways behind the ACC in the overall series (7-12-3), the league enters the 2021 challenge on a two year win streak. Last year’s games were a 7-5 advantage for the Big Ten despite a number of game cancellations stemming from COVID-19 issues, and 2019 was an 8-6 Big Ten advantage. 2018 was a tie, so the last time the ACC won was in 2017, by an 11-3 margin.

The full schedule of games is below:

Monday, November 29

• Notre Dame at Illinois
• Iowa at Virginia

Tuesday, November 30

• Indiana at Syracuse
• Minnesota at Pittsburgh
• Northwestern at Wake Forest
• Duke at Ohio State
• Florida State at Purdue
• Clemson at Rutgers

Wednesday, December 1

• Virginia Tech at Maryland
• Michigan at North Carolina
• Louisville at Michigan State
• Nebraska at NC State
• Miami at Penn State
• Wisconsin at Georgia Tech

Overall, this year’s challenge will feature 16 teams who earned a trip to the 2021 NCAA Tournament. The Clemson-Rutgers game will even be a rematch of the first round matchup from the tournament, a narrow 60-56 win for the Scarlet Knights.

Unfortunately, Coach K’s farewell season will not include a trip to the Xfinity Center to face old ACC foe Maryland as the Blue Devils instead head to Columbus to take on Ohio State. Overall, though, the list of games looks to be another great year for the challenge.