The 2024–25 men’s and women’s basketball schedule was revealed by the ACC yesterday afternoon. Since Cal, Stanford, and SMU will be included for the first time, this year’s announcement is a little more intriguing than the ones from previous years. We’ve heard a lot about how this would affect education and how frequently teams from the Atlantic coast will need to travel west, but we now have some concrete answers. It appears like the UNC men’s team isn’t having too much of a problem. The females’? Alright, let’s go to it.
The men’s team’s opponents for 2024–25 are as follows:
Home: Boston College, Cal, Georgia Tech, Miami, SMU, Stanford, Virginia
Away: Clemson, Florida State, Louisville, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
Home and Home: Duke, NC State, Pitt
The biggest note when looking at the men’s schedule is that they will not have to travel out west at all next season. The Heels will face off against all three newcomers, but they will do so from the comfort of the Dean Dome. It’s also worth noting that they will not have to travel to Charlottesville next season, which shouldn’t be that much of a note if it weren’t for the fact that it feels like the Heels are always there. As far as their road schedule is concerned, traveling to Florida State, Virginia Tech, and Syracuse is tough, but truly it could be worse.
Speaking of worse, here’s a look at the women’s basketball schedule:
Home: Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, NC State, Wake Forest, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, Boston College
Away: Duke, Cal, Stanford, SMU, Pitt, Miami, Clemson, Louisville, Syracuse
A shocking development in the UNC women’s schedule is that they will not face NC State twice next season. This also appears to be the case the following season, so at least for now it appears that the UNC/NC State rivalry series has died and we will now see the teams only play each other once in the regular season. The other noticeable detail in the schedule is that the Heels have to travel out west three times to face Cal, Stanford, and SMU. I can’t imagine that Courtney Banghart was super happy when she saw this schedule, but alas, this will be the first Carolina basketball team in the new iteration of the ACC to play three true west coast road games in a season.
Next year will be a really interesting experience for all of the teams in the ACC. It goes without saying that the three newcomer schools are getting the short end of the stick in many ways, but also they were fully aware of that when they decided to join the conference. While that sounds snarky, the truth is that the three schools needed a new home and there weren’t any Power Five options that would’ve made things much easier on them travel-wise. This is what college athletics have become, and I doubt we’re done seeing a lot of bizarre, non-sensical changes over the next 5-10 years.
What do you think of the ACC basketball schedule? Are you excited for Cal, Stanford, and SMU to join the conference? Let us know in the comments below.
