{"id":93047,"date":"2025-06-12T06:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T06:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/93047\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T06:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T06:07:10","slug":"kentucky-will-play-north-carolina-in-2025-acc-sec-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/93047\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky will play North Carolina in 2025 ACC\/SEC Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kentucky<\/a>\u2018s non-conference schedule was already among the toughest in college basketball in 2025-26 \u2014 and it just got tougher with one of the biggest brands in the history of the sport now coming to Rupp Arena. 2025 ACC\/SEC Challenge matchups are rolling out, and the Wildcats are set to host Hubert Davis<\/a> and the North Carolina Tar Heels<\/a> in Lexington.<\/p>\n

Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports broke the news on Wednesday<\/a> \u2014 along with the other head-to-head battles in the ACC\/SEC Challenge, including Florida at Duke, Clemson at Alabama, NC State at Auburn and Louisville at Arkansas.<\/p>\n

Take a look at the full schedule with an official announcement from the leagues expected soon.<\/p>\n

Florida at Duke <\/p>\n

North Carolina at Kentucky <\/p>\n

Virginia at Texas <\/p>\n

North Carolina State at Auburn <\/p>\n

Clemson at Alabama <\/p>\n

Louisville at Arkansas<\/p>\n

Oklahoma at Wake Forest<\/p>\n

SMU at Vanderbilt<\/p>\n

Texas A&M at Pittsburgh<\/p>\n

Mississippi State at Georgia Tech<\/p>\n

Miami (FL) at Ole Miss <\/p>\n

LSU at Boston College<\/p>\n

Virginia Tech at South Carolina<\/p>\n

Tennessee at Syracuse<\/p>\n

Missouri at Notre Dame<\/p>\n

Georgia at Florida State<\/p>\n

Official dates and times have not yet been finalized, but last year\u2019s series took place on December 3 and 4. Kentucky traveled to Clemson and lost to the Tigers 70-66 in that one \u2014 the Wildcats shooting just 38.1 percent from the field and 25.9 percent from three in their first loss of the season. <\/p>\n

The year before, Kentucky defeated Miami (FL) 95-73 inside Rupp Arena in the inaugural event on November 28. It replaced the Big 12\/SEC Challenge, which ran from 2013-23.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats are 12-9 in the all-time series \u2014 including a 5-2 record in Lexington. Kentucky currently holds a two-game winning streak over North Carolina, earning a 98-69 win in Las Vegas back in 2021, followed by an 87-83 victory in Atlanta in 2023. Those matchups came in the CBS Sports Classic. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about the brands in this one, but don\u2019t underestimate the Caleb Wilson<\/a> storyline, either. The five-star, top-five recruit in 2025 committed to UNC over UK in a back-and-forth recruitment that ended in late January. The Wildcats were the perceived leaders to earn his signature until the Tar Heels ramped up their efforts to steal him late \u2014 a brutal loss for Kentucky at the time. Now, it\u2019s a shot at revenge with Pope assembling a roster far more talented and deeper than Hubert Davis\u2019 group in Chapel Hill, despite costing him $14 million.<\/a><\/p>\n

At minimum, you won\u2019t find a non-conference schedule with more name-brand foes than Kentucky\u2019s in 2025-26. Take a look:<\/p>\n

Kentucky\u2019s 2025-26 non-conference schedule (as we know it)<\/p>\n

Oct. 24 (Fri.): vs. Purdue | Rupp Arena (Exhibition)<\/p>\n

Oct. 30 (Thu.): vs. Georgetown | Rupp Arena (Exhibition)<\/p>\n

Nov. 11 (Tue.): vs. Louisville | Louisville<\/p>\n

Nov. 18 (Tue.): vs. Michigan State | Champions Classic | Madison Square Garden (New York)<\/p>\n

Nov. 21 (Fri.): vs. Loyola University Maryland | Rupp Arena<\/p>\n

Nov. 26 (Wed.): vs. Tennessee Tech | Rupp Arena<\/p>\n

Dec. 5 (Fri.): vs. Gonzaga | Bridgestone Arena (Nashville)<\/p>\n

Dec. 9 (Tue.): vs. NC Central | Rupp Arena<\/p>\n

Dec. 13 (Sat.): vs. Indiana | Rupp Arena<\/p>\n

Dec. 20 (Sat.): vs. St. John\u2019s | CBS Sports Classic | State Farm Arena (Atlanta)<\/p>\n

Dec. 23 (Tue.): vs. Bellarmine | Rupp Arena<\/p>\n

TBD: North Carolina | SEC\/ACC Challenge | Rupp Arena<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kentucky\u2018s non-conference schedule was already among the toughest in college basketball in 2025-26 \u2014 and it just got…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,4000,231,772,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-93047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-kentucky-basketball","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114668899339751763","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}