ACC vs. SEC women's basketball challenge: All marquee matchups from annual showdown ft. South Carolina, LSU, UNC, and more

The 2025 ACC vs. SEC women's and men's basketball challenge schedule was released by ESPN on Thursday. This year's version of the annual challenge will be the third involving the two Power Four conferences after the inter-conference matchup tipped off in 2023.

The women's challenge will take place on Dec .3 and Dec. 4, while the men's challenge will be between Dec. 2 and 3. The inter-conference games will be shown on the ACC Network, SEC Network, ESPNU, ESPN2 and ESPN.

There will be several marquee games in the ACC vs. SEC women's challenge with the game involving national championship game finalists, the South Carolina Gamecocks against the Louisville Cardinals taking top billing in this year's showcase.

The LSU Tigers will also face the Duke Blue Devils, while the NC State Wolfpack will visit the Oklahoma Sooners to round out some of the ACC vs. SEC marquee games in the women's challenges.

The matchups on the women's side of the bracket will include:

Wednesday, December 3

Georgia at Florida State

Georgia Tech at Texas A&M

Kentucky at Miami

NC State at Oklahoma

Tennessee at Stanford

Auburn at Syracuse

Virginia at Vanderbilt

Thursday, December 4

California at Missouri

Clemson at Alabama

LSU at Duke

South Carolina at Louisville

North Carolina at Texas

Notre Dame at Ole Miss

Pitt at Mississippi State

Arkansas at SMU

Florida at Virginia Tech

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ACC vs. SEC challenge praised by commissioner

After the ACC vs. SEC challenge matchups were announced on Thursday, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips revealed his excitement at the clash of the country's premier basketball conferences while praising various stakeholders for initiating the showcase.

"We are excited for the third ACC/SEC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Challenges in December," Jim Phillips said. "This event is circled on the calendar every year and provides tremendous interconference matchups between two of the premier leagues in college basketball.

"We appreciate our partners at Disney/ESPN for their organization of the Challenge and our colleagues at the SEC, led by Greg Sankey, as we highlight our conferences and showcase our student-athletes and member institutions."

The ACC vs. SEC challenge has been competitive for both conferences, with a 7-7 record in the first year in 2023, and despite a lopsided record in the men's side, last year, the SEC women's teams finished with a 10-6 record and hold the advantage at 17-13 since the event's first iteration.