ACC’s new men’s basketball scheduling model produces one NC State-UNC meeting, no Duke-Miami matchup
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Instate foes North Carolina and N.C. State will meet just once next year while Duke won’t play the Miami team now coached by former Blue Devils assistant Jai Lucas in the Atlantic Coast Conference’s reconfigured scheduling model.
The ACC announced its second set of home-and-away partners Wednesday after announcing earlier this month that it would cut a 20-game men’s basketball schedule to 18 as part of its efforts to boost the sport amid recent years of dwindling NCAA Tournament bids.
The league had previously announced primary partners guaranteeing annual home-and-away matchups to create some protection for long-running series, such as famed rivals Duke and UNC or instate opponents Virginia and Virginia Tech. The second set of partners will change every year, while teams will play one game against 14 of the remaining 15 teams and miss playing one league school each year.
The league’s secondary partners for 2025-26: Boston College-Miami, California-Georgia Tech, Clemson-Pittsburgh, Duke-Louisville, Florida State-SMU, UNC-Syracuse, N.C. State-Virginia, Notre Dame-Stanford and Virginia Tech-Wake Forest.
As for the Tar Heels and Wolfpack, they’re separated by about a half-hour drive within the same area code, but the lone matchup this year will come on the Wolfpack’s home court in Raleigh. That will mark the first time UNC won’t have a home game against N.C. State since 1919 after a long history of playing twice per year.
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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball