The white-hot intensity of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge
For just over 20 years, the men’s college basketball season has been transformed by the arrival of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Established in 1999, it has given college teams in the Big Ten Conference (B1G) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) a chance to play against a school in the opposite conference at least once a season.
The ACC-Big Ten Challenge is usually scheduled in the early stages of the non-conference season, towards the back end of the year, with teams alternating between “home” and “away” statuses in successive seasons.
The contests were the brainchild of the ESPN broadcast network, that still retains broadcasting rights of the challenge to this very day. It was recognized as an excellent opportunity to shine the spotlight on some of the best up-and-coming NBA prospects and test their skills and temperament on the big stage.
Interestingly, the ACC teams won the first ten consecutive challenge games against their Big Ten rivals, before the Big Ten eventually broke their luck and proceeded to win five of the next seven challenges. The challenge has expanded hugely through the years, mainly due to the number of additional teams in the ACC and Big Ten, expanding the challenge to a best-of-14-game competition, with ties available if the challenge ends seven games apiece. The Florida State Seminoles have the best record, winning 11 of their 13 appearances in the challenge.
New Jersey-based Rutgers Scarlet Knights joined the Big Ten, along with Maryland, in 2014. The Scarlet Knights played the ACC’s Pittsburgh Panthers back in December as their Challenge game, falling to a 60-71 loss and extending their win-loss record in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge to 2-4. The recent legalization of sports betting in New Jersey has helped ramp up the attention of Rutgers’ college basketball team, which has developed NBA players such as Quincy Douby and Hamady N’Diaye in the past.
So popular has the ACC-Big Ten Challenge become that ESPN has opted to hand-pick games that will drive even greater interest, with the highest-profile B1G and ACC teams getting the chance to face-off and provide ESPN with enhanced ratings in the process. In 2007, a women’s ACC-Big Ten Challenge was established off the back of the successful men’s challenge, which has proven just as big a hit with televised games across both the Big Ten and ACC Networks.
