Both Wolfpack teams will be at home.
ESPN announced on Wednesday the upcoming matchups for the ACC/SEC Challenge in both men’s and women’s basketball. Both events are set for the first week of December.
The NC State men will host Texas on Dec. 4; it’s the Longhorns’ debut season in the SEC. These programs have met four times prior, all of them on neutral courts. No doubt State’s NCAA run helped improve its draw here—Texas finished last season at No. 25 in the Pomeroy Ratings, and reached the second round of the NCAAs as a seven-seed. I’d imagine they’ll be solid again.
The ladies will host Mississippi on Dec. 5. It’s worth noting that NC State already scheduled a non-conference game against South Carolina, so that matchup wasn’t going to be an option for the Challenge. The Rebels finished third in the SEC last season with a 24-9 (12-4) record and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament.
It feels like an underwhelming matchup given what State accomplished last season, but I can’t really blame ESPN for wanting a Stanford-LSU game, or for sending Texas to Notre Dame rather than create an NCAA tourney rematch between the Pack and Longhorns.
Anyway, these should be valuable games for both the men and women, and both are definitely winnable.