University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels To Play At Illinois In ACC/Big Ten Challenge
May 12, 2010 | Men's Basketball
May 12, 2010
by ACC Media Relations
North Carolina will play at Illinois as part of the field for the 12th annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge Presented by Dick's Sporting Goods Nov. 29-Dec. 1 on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3.com.
UNC and Illinois will meet in the Challenge for the fourth time, with Illinois winning two of the first three. Carolina beat Illinois in Greensboro in 2003-04, Roy Williams' first season as the Tar Heel head coach. The Illini beat Carolina in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., in the 2002-03 season and in Chapel Hill in the 2005-06 campaign.
This year's event - featuring top college basketball programs playing for conference supremacy and the Commissioner's Cup -- will include 11 teams that played in the 2010 NCAA Tournament: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland and Wake Forest from the ACC and Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Purdue and Wisconsin from the Big Ten.
For the sixth consecutive year, the Challenge will feature 11 games and include two telecasts on ESPNU with ESPN and ESPN2 combining to televise the remaining nine games. ESPN3.com, the broadband sports television network from ESPN, will simulcast the ESPN and ESPN2 telecasts.
The ACC has won 10 of the first 11 Challenges with ACC teams winning 67 of the 108 games played. A year ago, the Big Ten won its first Challenge by a 6-to-5 margin. Road teams won six of the 11 games in 2009 and seven of the contests were decided by seven points or less, including four games by four of fewer points.
The schedule for the 2010 ACC/Big Ten Challenge is as follows (times and TV networks are to be determined):
Monday, November 29th
Virginia @ Minnesota
Tuesday, November 30th
North Carolina @ Illinois
Ohio State @ Florida State
Michigan @ Clemson
Georgia Tech @ Northwestern
Iowa @ Wake Forest
Wednesday, December 1st
Michigan State @ Duke
Purdue @ Virginia Tech
North Carolina State @ Wisconsin
Indiana @ Boston College
Maryland @ Penn State
Game times and ESPN platform designations will be determined and announced at a later date.
NCAA Tournament Notes: The ACC (.665) and the Big Ten (.619) rank first and third, respectively, among conferences in NCAA Tournament winning percentage. Since 1988, the ACC (23) and the Big Ten (17) have had 40 of the 92 teams in the Final Four and have won 10 national titles.
Teams from the ACC (347) and the Big Ten (312) have combined for 659 NCAA Tournament victories. The ACC (29) and the Big Ten (18) have combined to produce 37 percent of the No. 1 seeds since the NCAA started assigning seeds in 1979.
Since 2000, the ACC (10) and the Big Ten (9) have combined for 19 Final Four appearances and six national titles - North Carolina (2009 and 2005), Duke (2001 and 2010), Maryland (2002), and Michigan State (2000). The Big Ten and the ACC also rank 1-2, respectively, in all-time NCAA Tournament bids, NCAA Tournament victories and Final Four appearances.
