NCAA Basketball: Top 5 matchups in 2019-20 Big Ten/ACC Challenge

By Toby Brown | Sep 28, 2019

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MARCH 13: A general view of the Penn State Nittany Lions bringing the ball up court against the Ohio State Buckeyes during the championship game of the 2011 Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse on March 13, 2011 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Ohio State won 71-60. (Photo by Chris Chambers/Getty Images) /

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HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT – MARCH 23: Raiquan Gray #1 of the Florida State Seminoles celebrates his teams lead against the Murray State Racers in the second half during the second round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at XL Center on March 23, 2019 in Hartford, Connecticut. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /

The annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge always has great matchups to observe. Here’s a closer look at the top battles this NCAA Basketball season.

The Big Ten/ACC Challenge is some of the most intriguing days of the early NCAA Basketball season. This event is an annual event to match up some of the best college basketball teams in the nation against each other. These are the types of early-season matchups that the fans love to see.

The depth that the conference has over the Big Ten has given them the edge in the series 12-5-3. The Big Ten is looking for its first Challenge victory since 2015. Although coming into this year’s edition of the challenge, the ACC definitely has the upper hand.

Here’s a preview of the top five most interesting matchups of this season’s premier challenge.

5. Florida State Seminoles at Indiana Hoosiers

This game seems to be a little underrated at the start with Indiana losing some key players in Romeo Langford and Juwan Morgan both were the leading scorers for the Hoosiers last year. They have made some great additions to the team throughout the recruiting process. The two biggest are easily Trayce Jackson-Davis and Armaan Franklin.

This Hoosier team is going to look a lot different from last years team in a very good way if you are a Hoosier fan. With the beginning of IU’s schedule being super easy this will be the first test for the new, young team. Luckily for Indiana, it is going to be at Assembly Hall which should end up giving them the slight advantage. Even if the young players play up to their potential, this game is going to be very difficult on the Hoosiers. However, it can still be a winnable game if things fall right for them at the beginning.

The Florida State Seminoles will be looking to get off to a hot start this season before they start their ACC schedule. Obviously, Florida State did not get better from last year with the losses of Terance Mann and Mfiondu Kabengele. However with their schedule early on having easy and tougher parts it should give this Seminole Team time to figure out exactly their identity. Even with adjusting to playing without two key players, just like Indiana will have to do, I see Florida State being the more complete basketball team by the time this game rolls around.

With all that being said I give the advantage to Florida State and see them winning this game in Bloomington 77-70.

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