The 2025 ACC/SEC Challenge schedule was recently released, and the Duke basketball program was handed the reigning national champion Florida Gators. Luckily, the Blue Devils will get to host Florida at Cameron Indoor, but this gives Duke one more marquee matchup against the potential No. 1 team in the land ahead of next season, and adds to an already grueling non-conference slate.
This will be the third annual ACC/SEC challenge, and the Atlantic Coast Conference is looking to redeem itself after an absolutely embarrassing showing in last season's event.
In 2024, the ACC as a whole went an abysmal 2-14 across the two-day showing. On top of that, ACC teams lost 11 of those 14 games by double digits and 5 of those games by 20 or more points. The ACC was just 2-6 at home in the event.
The only squads in the conference to pick up a win were Duke, which picked up a huge victory at home against Auburn, and Clemson, which took down Kentucky on its home court as well.
Although the 2024 SEC has a legitimate case to be called the best single-season conference in the history of college basketball, the ACC proved just how mediocre it was compared to the best.
Now looking at next year's event, the ACC has a chance to reel in some solid victories. Duke will have as tall of a task as anyone taking down Florida, but several great games could favor the ACC.
Besides the Blue Devils, most of the top teams in the ACC will have to hit the road for their matchups. North Carolina will play at Kentucky, Clemson will play at Alabama, and Virginia will play at Texas. However, these are all winnable games.
And as we move to the middle-of-the-pack contests, Syracuse has a shot to pick up a big win over Tennessee at home, Boston College will host LSU, and Notre Dame gets to host Missouri.
It's pretty difficult to have a worse record than the ACC did in the 2024 ACC/SEC Challenge, only stacking up two wins in 16 tries, but the conference as a whole is certainly a step above what it was a season ago, and the event could be much more competitive.