SEC-ACC Challenge features UNC-Alabama rematch: What are the other top matchups?

Matchups for the second SEC-ACC Challenge — and the first including both conferences’ newly added schools — were released Wednesday, both leagues announced.

Altogether, the challenge features eight programs from The Athletic’s preseason top-25: Alabama (No. 1), Duke (No. 6), Tennessee (No. 8), Auburn (No. 10), Texas A&M (No. 11), North Carolina (No. 12), Florida (No. 16) and Kentucky (No. 24).

Among the highlights: Alabama travels to North Carolina in a rematch of this season’s Sweet 16 thriller; Texas — in its first year in the SEC — plays at NC State, which is coming off a Final Four appearance; and Kentucky, led by new coach Mark Pope, faces a Clemson team coming off its second-ever Elite Eight appearance.

The event is broken into two days.

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Matchups for the first date — Tuesday, Dec. 3 — are:

South Carolina at Boston College
California at Missouri
Kentucky at Clemson
Florida State at LSU
Georgia Tech at Oklahoma
Ole Miss at Louisville
Arkansas at Miami
Notre Dame at Georgia
Syracuse at Tennessee
Wake Forest at Texas A&M

Matchups for the second date — Wednesday, Dec. 4 — are:

Auburn at Duke
Texas at NC State
Alabama at North Carolina
Pittsburgh at Mississippi State
Virginia at Florida
Vanderbilt at Virginia Tech

The expanded schedule and new teams come as a result of recent conference realignment, much of which was spurred by Texas and Oklahoma’s announcement in the summer of 2022 that they were moving to the SEC. Although multiple ACC schools voted against it, the league last season absorbed California, Stanford and SMU — the latter two of which are not featured in this year’s challenge — amidst the dissolution of the Pac-12.

Mark Pope is entering his first season as the coach at his alma mater, Kentucky. (James Crisp / AP)

Which matchups are most interesting?

Alabama at North Carolina may be the best matchup of them all, for multiple reasons. For starters, both teams return All-America guards, as Mark Sears is back for the Crimson Tide and RJ Davis is back for the Tar Heels. Then factor in that these programs met in the Sweet 16 — with Alabama prevailing en route to the first Final Four in program history — and there’s another juicy angle.

But even more, Nate Oats has won two pivotal recent recruiting battles against Hubert Davis and UNC. First, he convinced forward Jarin Stevenson, a Chapel Hill native, to reclassify to Alabama last offseason, and this spring, Oats landed former Rutgers center Cliff Omoruyi instead of Davis. Both teams should be ranked in the top 15 at the time of their meeting.

But there are multiple other intriguing games. Auburn and Duke could be a top-10 matchup, even with that game coming on the back end of a daunting nonconference gauntlet for the Blue Devils. John Calipari and his new Arkansas team will head to south Florida to play a Miami team looking to return to its 2023 Final Four form. New coaches abound, as Arkansas (Calipari), Kentucky (Pope), Vanderbilt (Mark Byington) and Louisville (Pat Kelsey) look to get settled in with their new staffs.

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Other games to watch

Two sleeper games that may have massive NCAA Tournament implications? Wake Forest at Texas A&M and Virginia at Florida. Steve Forbes got back All-ACC guard Hunter Sallis at the NBA Draft deadline, and Forbes will be depending on Sallis to get the Demon Deacons back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time during Forbes’ tenure. Texas A&M, meanwhile, lost one of the best games of this past NCAA Tournament — in overtime to Houston in the round of 32 — and will be looking to establish itself as more of an SEC frontrunner.

As for Virginia, it was one of the final teams into the Big Dance this March but got bounced (and embarrassed) in its First Four meeting against Colorado State. Tony Bennett responded by adding arguably the best portal class in school history. Meanwhile, Florida saw leading scorer Walter Clayton Jr. withdraw from the NBA Draft, and he’ll be tasked with taking the Gators to new heights in Todd Golden’s third season.

(Photo: Harry How / Getty Images)