Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
The ACC/SEC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Challenges return for the 2025-26 college basketball season with 32 games scheduled over the course of three days featuring two of the premier conferences in college basketball.
The ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge will take place over back-to-back days Tuesday, Dec. 2, and Wednesday, Dec. 3, while the ACC/SEC Women’s Challenge is slated for Dec. 3 and Thursday, Dec. 4. Both the men’s and women’s events will be televised across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ACC Network and SEC Network.
Challenge highlights on the men’s side include defending national champions Florida (No. 2 in ESPN’s early Top 25 rankings) visiting perennial power Duke (No. 12), a battle of the blue bloods between North Carolina and Kentucky (No. 9), as well as Louisville (No. 7) and Arkansas (No. 11) clashing in year two under head coaches Pat Kelsey and John Calipari.
On the women’s side, national runner-up South Carolina (No. 2 in ESPN’s Way Too Early Top 25) heads to Louisville (No. 15) to take on the Cardinals, the LSU Tigers (No. 6) face the Duke Blue Devils (No. 5) in Durham, and NC State (No. 10) hits the road to Oklahoma (No. 7) to face the Sooners.
The Challenge finished the inaugural year with 7-7 ties for both the men’s and women’s events but saw the SEC coming out on top in year two. In the 2024 Men’s Challenge, the SEC went 14-2 to bring the overall Challenge record to 21-9. The SEC went 10-6 in the Women’s Challenge last season to bring the two-year total to 17-13.
Coverage details, including platform designations and commentator information, will be announced closer to the 2025-26 college basketball season.
Adam Zagoria is a Basketball Insider who covers basketball at all levels. A contributor to The New York Times and SportsNet New York (SNY), he is also the author of two books and is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. His articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide. He also won an Emmy award for his work on the SNY mini-documentary on Syracuse guard Tyus Battle.
A veteran Ultimate Frisbee player, he has competed in numerous National and World Championships and, perhaps more importantly, his teams won the Westchester Summer League (WSL) championships in 2011 and 2013.
He lives in Manhattan with his wife and children.
