NCAA Basketball: Ranking the 14 matchups for 2022 ACC/Big Ten Challenge

Last season’s annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge produced some incredibly entertaining results. Of the 14 NCAA Basketball games, nine of them had a margin of five points or fewer. Three of them had to go at least one overtime, with NC State beating Nebraska in four OTs, 104-100.

Five ranked teams took part in the challenge, including No.1 Duke and No. 2 Purdue. The Boilermakers beat Florida State by nearly 30 points, while the Blue Devils fell to Ohio State in an upset. That defeat came back to haunt the ACC total, losing to the Big Ten, 8-6 in the overall challenge.

That made it the third straight year that the Big Ten won the series, cutting into the ACC’s all-time lead of 12-8-3. The Big Ten certainly was the better conference in the regular season last year but the ACC was better in the NCAA Basketball Tournament, including having two of the four Final Four participants.

The 2022-23 season will be a new one for the challenge and yet, there will be some similar matchups that have recently occurred.

There are a couple of pending rematches among these 14 matchups, including Duke vs Ohio State and Syracuse vs Illinois. And Pittsburgh and Northwestern faced off for two years in a row before last season. After finishing last in the ACC last season, the NC State Wolfpack was the team left out of the mix.

So based on the current matchups, who are the top games to watch in late November? Here’s how I would rank them in terms of intrigue.