Cal Men Not Part of ACC/SEC Basketball Challenge in 2025-26

Golden Bears will travel to Missouri in December in women's ACC/SEC Challenge

Cal men's basketball head coach Mark Madsen / Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

The ACC announced on Thursday the pairings and dates for the 2025-26 ACC/SEC Challenge in basketball, but Cal will not be part of the Challenge on the men’s side.

Cal will participate in the women’s ACC/SEC Challenge, with the Golden Bears women playing a road game against Missouri on December 4.

But the Cal men will not be playing in one of the 16 men’s ACC/SEC Challenge games.

The ACC consists of 18 basketball schools, but the SEC has only 16 basketball members. So two ACC men’s teams and two ACC women’s teams will not be part of the Challenge in the coming season. Cal and Stanford are the two ACC men’s teams that won’t be involved, and the Boston College and Wake Forest women will not participate..

In 2024-25, which was Cal’s first season in the ACC, the Golden Bears men played a December 3 road game against Missouri as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge. Cal lost that game 98-93 on its way to a 14-19 season.

The Cal women, who reached the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2019 this past season, hosted Alabama as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge in 2024-25, and beat the the 19th-ranked Crimson Tide. Cal will be road team in the Challenge this coming season when it travels to Missouri, which went 14-18 overall and 3-13 in the SEC in 2024-25.

Games in the ACC/SEC Challenge will be televised across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ACC Network and SEC Network.

Men’s Challenge

Dec. 2

Florida at Duke

UNC at Kentucky

Tennessee at Syracuse

Texas A&M at Pittsburgh

Missouri at Notre Dame

Georgia at Florida State

Oklahoma at Wake Forest

Miami at Ole Miss

Virginia Tech at South Carolina

Dec. 3

NC State at Auburn

Louisville at Arkansas

SMU at Vanderbilt

Clemson at Alabama

Mississippi State at Georgia Tech

LSU at Boston College

Virginia at Texas

.

Women’s Challenge

Dec. 3

Kentucky at Miami

Tennessee at Stanford

NC State at Oklahoma

Georgia at Florida State

Auburn at Syracuse

Georgia Tech at Texas A&M

Virginia at Vanderbilt

Dec. 4

Cal at Missouri

LSU at Duke

South Carolina at Louisville

Florida at Virginia Tech

Notre Dame at Ole Miss

UNC at Texas

Clemson at Alabama

Arkansas at SMU

Pittsburgh at Mississippi State

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