Alabama Basketball Learns Opponent for 2025 SEC/ACC Challenge

The Crimson Tide will take on Clemson in the third annual interconference event.

Mar 30, 2024; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats reacts in the first half against the Clemson Tigers in the finals of the West Regional of the 2024 NCAA Tournament at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The highly anticipated slate for the third annual SEC/ACC Challenge was released on Wednesday and Alabama men's basketball will host Clemson, per CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein.

It was confirmed on Thursday that the Crimson Tide and Tigers will face each other on December 3.

This will be a rematch of not only the 2023 SEC/ACC Challenge, but also the 2024 Elite Eight matchup that sent the Crimson Tide to its first Final Four in program history.

After falling to Florida in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal, Alabama received the 2-seed in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament and defeated Robert Morris, Saint Mary's and BYU before losing to 1-seed Duke in the Elite Eight. The Crimson Tide finished the season with a 28-9 (13-5 SEC) record. Alabama finished 2024-25 as the No. 6 team in the AP Top 25 and No. 6 in the Coaches Poll.

After falling to Louisville in the ACC Tournament semifinal, Clemson received the 5-seed in the Midwest Region of the NCAA Tournament but was upset by 12-seed McNeese in the first round. The Tigers ended the season 27-7 (18-2 ACC) record and were the No. 22 team in the final AP Top 25 and No. 23 in the last Coaches Poll.

The Crimson Tide is 1-1 in the SEC/ACC Challenge with a home loss to Clemson in 2023 and a road win over North Carolina in 2024.

Alabama had a plethora of impressive wins against non-conference opponents last season, but an argument can be made that the 94-78 beatdown over the Tar Heels was the most admirable as the Tide played a practically perfect game on both sides of the court from start to finish.

While Alabama earned a point for the conference during last year's SEC/ACC Challenge, the rest of the Southeastern Conference made a major statement.

For quite some time, the SEC has been known as THE football conference and the national champions over the past couple of decades are reflective of that. Under that same criteria, basketball has belonged to the ACC, Big 12 and Big East.

The SEC logged a 14-2 record in this year's SEC/ACC Challenge. FOURTEEN WINS and TWO LOSSES against perhaps the best college basketball conference of this generation one year after going 7-7 in the 2023 event.

The SEC absolutely obliterated its non-conference opponents before the SEC/ACC Challenge as well, but it was at this moment that the college basketball world realized that the Southeastern Conference was in charge.

The SEC finished its non-conference slate with an overall record of 185-23, including an all-time best 21-8 record against AP Top 25 teams. And after a wild couple of months of SEC play, the conference sent a record 14 teams to the NCAA Tournament with Florida eventually winning it all.

The matchups reveal for the 2025 SEC/ACC Challenge brought more clarity to Alabama's non-conference schedule.

Alabama's Current 2025-26 Non-Conference Schedule

• Nov. 3: vs. North Dakota
• Nov. 8: at St. John’s
• Nov. 13: vs. Purdue
• Nov. 19: at Illinois (in Chicago)
• Nov. 26-30: at Players Era Festival (three games in Las Vegas)
• Dec. 2 or 3: vs. Clemson (SEC/ACC Challenge)
• Dec. 7: vs. UTSA (12/7)
• Dec. 13: vs. Arizona (in Birmingham for C.M. Newton Classic)
• Dec. 21: vs. Kennesaw State (in Huntsville)
• TBD: vs. Yale
• TBD: vs. USF

2025 SEC/ACC Challenge

• Florida at Duke
• North Carolina at Kentucky
• Virginia at Texas
• NC State at Auburn
• Clemson at Alabama
• Louisville at Arkansas
• Oklahoma at Wake Forest
• SMU at Vanderbilt
• Texas A&M at Pitt
• Mississippi State at Georgia Tech
• Miami at Ole Miss
• LSU at Boston College
• Virginia Tech at South Carolina
• Tennessee at Syracuse
• Missouri at Notre Dame
• Georgia at Florida State

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