The Big Ten and ACC announced the lineup for the annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge, which enters its 18th season. The Gophers will meet up with a familiar face when they travel to Tallahassee on Nov. 28 to take on Florida State.
While the Gophers struggled to a 8-23 finish last season, Florida State finished 20-14 and had some impressive victories over VCU, Florida, Virginia and Syracuse. But the Seminoles failed to make the NCAA Tournament – and lost in the second round of the NIT to end their season.
#Gophers will go for six straight #ACCB1G wins this November in Tallahassee. https://t.co/EhZofCMNyo pic.twitter.com/YJAJzQfpqY
— Minnesota Men's Basketball (@GopherMBB) May 24, 2016
It’s the third time in the last five seasons the Gophers and Seminoles have met up in the classic. Minnesota won the previous two meetings by a combined 19 points.
The Daily Gopher notes that the matchup between Minnesota and Florida State is the most common pairing of any opponents in the challenge. In fact, in the 18 years of the event they have faced each other one-third of the time.
While Minnesota and Florida State have matched up six times, the Gophers have never played Boston College, Duke, Louisville, North Carolina, NC State, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh or Syracuse in the 18-year history of the event.
The full lineup of games for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge looks like this:
Monday, Nov. 28
- Minnesota at Florida State
- Wake Forest at Northwestern
Tuesday, Nov. 29
- Syracuse at Wisconsin
- Michigan State at Duke
- Pittsburgh at Maryland
- Iowa at Notre Dame
- Georgia Tech at Penn State
- N.C. State at Illinois
Wednesday, Nov. 30
- Purdue at Louisville
- North Carolina at Indiana
- Ohio State at Virginia
- Virginia Tech at Michigan
- Rutgers at Miami (Fla)
- Nebraska at Clemson
Whichever conference wins the majority of the games is awarded the Commissioner’s Cup. The Big Ten has won the cup in each of the last two years by winning eight of the 14 matchups.
