Virginia Travels to Northwestern in 2016 ACC/Big Ten Challenge

Story Links

May 25, 2016

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Atlantic Coast Conference and Big Ten announced on Wednesday (May 25) the matchups for the 2016 ACC/Big Ten Women’s Basketball Challenge. Virginia will travel to Evanston, Ill. to play Northwestern on Thursday, Dec. 1 at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The game time will be announced at a later date.

This year’s Challenge will mark the 10th year of the event that mad its debut for the 2007-08 season. All 14 Big Ten teams and all of the ACC teams except Clemson will participate in the 2016 Challenge.

Challenge games will be played in a two-day format, beginning Wednesday, Nov. 30. Syracuse and Pittsburgh will host games on the first day, while Notre Dame, Florida State and Wake Forest will play on the road. On Dec. 1, NC State, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Louisville and Georgia Tech will host Big Ten foes, while Duke, North Carolina, Virginia and Miami will travel to Big Ten sites.

For the second consecutive year and third time in Challenge history, the ACC and Big Ten played to a tie in 2015. Both conferences won seven games over the two-day event. The ACC is now 6-0-3 all-time in the Challenge with a 62-46 record against the Big Ten in Challenge games. The two other ties occurred in 2014 (7-7) and 2011 (6-6). The ACC has won at least six games in all eight Challenges.

This will be the first time Virginia and Northwestern have met in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and just the third meeting overall. The schools are tied 1-1 in the series, with the Cavaliers winning the most recent meeting, 76-55, on Dec. 5, 2004.

The ACC and Big Ten conference offices determine the schedule each season, and the official title of the Challenge rotates each year. The 2016 event will be referred to as the ACC/Big Ten Women’s Basketball Challenge and will continue to mirror the official title of the two conferences’ Challenge agreement for men’s basketball.

The ACC and the Big Ten have long been among the most competitive conferences on the women’s basketball scene. Since 1982, current members of the ACC (21) and the Big Ten (14) have combined for 35 berths in the Final Four and have combined for 430 total appearances in the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship.

2016 CHALLENGE SCHEDULE
Wednesday, November 30
Michigan State at Syracuse
Notre Dame at Iowa
Florida State at Minnesota
Purdue at Pitt
Wake Forest at Illinois

Thursday, December 1
Indiana at NC State
Nebraska at Virginia Tech
Duke at Rutgers
Penn State at Boston College
Maryland at Louisville
North Carolina at Wisconsin
Michigan at Georgia Tech
Virginia at Northwestern
Miami at Ohio State