Dec. 3 the Maryland Terrapins will face the Indiana Hoosiers in a momentous rematch of last year’s NCAA finals. Basketball fanatics across the country can give thanks to the Big Ten/ACC challenge for this exciting match-up. Now in its fourth year, the Big Ten/ACC challenge pairs up 18 teams from two of the nation’s most prestigious conferences for nine games over three nights.
The challenge, created to spark some March Madness in the cold of December, is a showcase for the nation’s top teams. Eleven of the past 16 Final Four teams have come out of the two conferences. The last three national champions, Michigan State (2000), Duke (2001) and Maryland (2002) have all come out of the two conferences.
“It’s always great to eliminate the Cupcake City games, and [getting] two of the nation’s marquee conferences together like this will really whet the appetites of college hoop fans early in the season,” ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale said upon hearing about the formation of the challenge. “Take it to the bank — these game will be ‘Maalox Specials,’ they’ll be nail-biters. We’re talking big time college basketball at its finest!”
College basketball fans around the nation also recognize the excitement. “I’ve attended both of Duke’s home basketball games against Army and Davidson, and they were exciting,” Duke Freshman Josh Silverstien said. “I can’t imagine [what] the insanity of bringing a big time rival conference member like Ohio State into the mix will be like.”
The challenge is set up to get the best games with evenly matched teams. Right before the season ESPN and the two conferences rate each of their teams one through nine. Then the corresponding teams are paired up against each other (No. 1 vs. No. 1, No. 2 vs. No. 2, etc.)
For the Big Ten the event is another step in eventually making the league the dominant college basketball conference in the nation. In 1998 they held the first Big Ten tournament, and the challenge is another step in building up prestige of the conference.
The challenge also reaps many benefits for teams in both conferences. Teams that stay close to the east coast, and would never show up in the Midwest, like Wake Forest, get some recognition and visibility in a new region. The same goes for the Big Ten, a team like Northwestern will travel to the east coast, a place they would not travel to without the challenge.
Both conferences teams also accumulate more power points for selection Sunday because of a stronger non-conference schedule.
Probably benefiting the most will be the relatively low profile programs like Virginia and Ohio State who get big name teams like North Carolina and Michigan State on their non-conference schedules.
Buzzer-beaters and underdog triumphs are not unlikely. In the 2000 challenge North Carolina State upset then No. 21 Purdue on a last minute three-point shot. No. 7 Michigan State took down No. 2 North Carolina in another big upset. In 2001 Georgia Tech squeaked past Wisconsin in a one-point victory, and Indiana defeated the Tarheels to start their free fall down the charts.
The ACC holds a 15-11 advantage overall in the challenge, and has won the series in each of the previous three years, obtaining the commissioner’s cup. Look for Wisconsin and the rest of the Big Ten to try and redeem themselves this week in the Big Ten/ACC challenge. All the games are going to be televised by ESPN and promise to be some heart-stopping, nerve-racking, primetime specials that may give viewers a preview of what is to come this March when the real madness begins again.
