could have his legal matters resolved<\/a> before next season.<\/p>\n6. Auburn at Clemson<\/p>\n
Steven Pearl\u2019s first Auburn team narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament, but retaining Tahaad Pettiford was huge, and the rest of the Tigers\u2019 roster is totally revamped. As for the other Tigers, coach Brad Brownell will probably be without injured contributors Zac Foster and Carter Welling \u2014 both of whom are recovering from torn ACLs \u2014 this early in the year, but never count out the ACC\u2019s longest-tenured coach.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2269269490.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Rick Barnes and Tennessee could have an all-transfer starting five next season, led by Wake Forest transfer Juke Harris. (Michael Reaves \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
7. Florida State at No. 15 Tennessee<\/p>\n
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes\u2019 apparent pivot from defensive-minded, grind-it-out teams to one stocked with high-usage scorers will be one of the most fascinating Xs and Os storylines of this season. Florida State coach Luke Loucks better hope the Vols are still tinkering with those pieces in early December if an entirely new Seminoles team is going to have a shot in Knoxville.<\/p>\n
8. Ole Miss at Virginia Tech<\/p>\n
Virginia Tech coach Mike Young quietly had a nice offseason, retaining Amani Hansberry and point guard Ben Hammond. If the Hokies are going to make it back to the Big Dance, they need to win games like this.<\/p>\n
9. South Carolina at NC State<\/p>\n
Justin Gainey\u2019s first NC State team is heavy on former mid-major darlings, but Paul McNeil \u2014 one of the best shooters in the sport \u2014 returning was arguably his biggest offseason win. As for South Carolina, these are the measuring-stick games that Lamont Paris, who is firmly on the hot seat, cannot afford to lose.<\/p>\n
10. Boston College at Georgia<\/p>\n
It was something of a surprise that Boston College was the job that ultimately lured Luke Murray away from UConn and Dan Hurley, but the offensive guru put together an Eagles roster that should be BC\u2019s most competitive in years. That\u2019s the reverse of what coach Mike White dealt with in Athens, losing Cyril and leading scorer Jeremiah Wilkinson to the transfer portal.<\/p>\n
11. Pittsburgh at Missouri<\/p>\n
With top-10 recruit Jason Crowe Jr. in the fold \u2014 and a number of savvy transfer additions, like Kansas forward Bryson Tiller \u2014 Missouri coach Dennis Gates could have a sneaky-good team. This is a tough draw for Pitt coach Jeff Capel, who enters a must-win year relying on ACC retreads like Nait George (Syracuse) and Baye Ndongo (Georgia Tech).<\/p>\n
12. Syracuse at Oklahoma<\/p>\n
Gerry McNamara\u2019s first Syracuse team should be longer and more athletic than any that Red Autry fielded the last three seasons, but how will the Orange hang against high-major competition? It\u2019s a winnable game, at least, against a top-heavy Sooners team that might live and die on transfer guard Pop Isaacs\u2019 shot-making.<\/p>\n
13. Stanford at No. 26 Texas A&M<\/p>\n
Bucky McMillan proved that \u201cBucky Ball\u201d can work at the high-major level in his first season at Texas A&M, and Kansas State guard PJ Haggerty \u2014 one of the best bucket-getters in the sport \u2014 should be a glove-like fit in that system. That\u2019s tough news for a Stanford squad that saw star freshman Ebuka Okorie stay in the NBA Draft, and which will almost certainly struggle to replace the one-and-done\u2019s production.<\/p>\n
14. No. 25 Vanderbilt at Notre Dame<\/p>\n
With All-SEC guard Tyler Tanner opting to return to school, Vandy coach Mark Byington once again has a top-25 caliber squad and one of the sport\u2019s best offenses. There wasn\u2019t a better matchup out there than Notre Dame, which will be fighting uphill to make the ACC tournament?<\/p>\n
15. Wake Forest at LSU<\/p>\n
Why isn\u2019t new-again LSU coach Will Wade playing at NC State, the school he jilted after only one season? That would\u2019ve been must-see TV. Instead, the wrong Tobacco Road foe \u2014 with one of college basketball\u2019s smallest budgets \u2014 is probably no match for Wade\u2019s international-heavy roster.<\/p>\n
16. Georgia Tech at Mississippi State<\/p>\n
Gotta find 16 matchups, right? New Georgia Tech coach Scott Cross is in the early stages of a major rebuild, while Chris Jans will be looking to bounce back after his first losing season in Starkville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ACC-SEC Men\u2019s Challenge regularly delivers some of the best nonconference games in men\u2019s college basketball, and next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2531,2532,2534,6789,6786,2516,28,2530,30,29,3731,4669,4683,2529,2515,4657,2537,5079,6086,10480,6787,4676,4699,6790,10481,6761,6759,6756,4692,2533,10253,6792,10254,4682,6755,6788],"class_list":["post-298155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-arkansas-razorbacks","tag-auburn-tigers","tag-boston-college-eagles","tag-clemson-tigers","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-state-seminoles","tag-georgia-bulldogs","tag-georgia-tech-yellow-jackets","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-louisville-cardinals","tag-lsu-tigers","tag-mens-college-basketball","tag-miami-hurricanes","tag-mississippi-state-bulldogs","tag-missouri-tigers","tag-north-carolina-state-wolfpack","tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish","tag-oklahoma-sooners","tag-ole-miss-rebels","tag-pittsburgh-panthers","tag-south-carolina-gamecocks","tag-stanford-cardinal","tag-syracuse-orange","tag-tennessee-volunteers","tag-texas-am-aggies","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-vanderbilt-commodores","tag-virginia-cavaliers","tag-virginia-tech-hokies","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}