Who did Notre Dame men's basketball draw this season in annual ACC/SEC Challenge?
A brief post-game press conference completed that late November 2023 night in the bowels of a Southeastern Conference arena, Notre Dame men's basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry stepped away from the table with an expression of someone who’d just sucked a stack of lemons.
The then-first-year Irish head coach wasn’t happy. He generally isn’t after losses, and this one was after Notre Dame shot .327 percent from the field, .286 percent from 3 and .650 percent from the foul line while trailing for 23:50 and by as many as 14 in a 65-53 setback to South Carolina.
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It was Notre Dame’s first true road test under Shrewsberry, and the program’s first foray into the new ACC/SEC Challenge that started in 2023.
The loss wasn’t all that was on Shrewsberry’s mind as he made the slow walk back to his locker room. He wasn’t happy about the result, and he wasn’t happy after receiving word sometime that night or day or week that Notre Dame would also be on the road the following season – this season – for the second ACC/SEC Challenge.
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On Wednesday, matchups for this year’s Challenge were set with Notre Dame sent to Georgia on Tuesday, December 3. It will be Notre Dame’s first visit to Stegman Coliseum in Athens. The teams have met four times (2-2) all at neutral sites – twice in Atlanta, once in Bay Lake, Florida (Walt Disney World) and once in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Bulldogs finished 20-17 overall, 6-12 and 11th in the 14-team SEC, which expands this season with the additions of Oklahoma and Texas. Georgia won at Florida State, 68-66, in last year’s Challenge, which ended 7-7.
The Challenge is a television-driven event and for the second straight season, television has spoken – it would rather see Notre Dame play a road game than play a home game, where the Irish are a rather pedestrian 20-16 combined over the last two years after going 14-1 in 2021-22.
When it comes to these types of intraconference matchups, there’s an unwritten rule that leagues try to follow – if a school plays a road game one year, that school would and usually is given a home game the following year.
Notre Dame is the only team in the now 18-team ACC to play its first two ACC/SEC Challenge games on the road. Six of the seven league teams that played on the road last year have home games this year.
Prior to the ACC/SEC Challenge, Notre Dame, which joined the ACC in 2013, took part in the ACC/Big Ten, or the Big Ten/ACC, Challenge in all 10 seasons (2013-22). Not once did Notre Dame play consecutive Challenge games. It went road-home-road-home each season while playing only five teams (Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan State, Ohio State) in what is now an 18-team Big Ten.
Notre Dame’s 2024-25 schedule also includes a return road game against Georgetown, which closes out a two-year series agreement between the schools. A “marquee” home game has yet to be announced.
Notre Dame will play 20 league games – 10 at home and 10 on the road.
Notre Dame’s three repeat league opponents – down from six with the addition of three schools this season − are Boston College, Georgia Tech and Syracuse. Its home-only opponents are California, Louisville, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, SMU, Stanford and Virginia Tech. Its road-only opponents are Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Miami, North Carolina State, Virginia and Wake Forest.
Notre Dame’s 2024-25 schedule will be completed sometime in September. Likely, late September. Last year’s schedule was officially released on Sept. 25.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on Twitter: @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Road game awaits Notre Dame in 2024 ACC/SEC men's basketball challenge
