North Carolina will face Kentucky in Lexington for the 2025 ACC/SEC Challenge, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein reported on Wednesday. It’s the first matchup between the Tar Heels and Wildcats since Dec. 16, 2023 and the first in Rupp Arena since Dec. 13, 2014, when Willie Cauley-Stein and Brice Johnson tied with a game-high 15 points in a 84-70 win for John Calipari’s squad.
UNC leads the all-time series with Kentucky, 25-18, but has lost eight of the last 12 and hasn’t won in Rupp Arena since Dec. 1, 2007.
It’s the first matchup against UNC for second-year Kentucky coach Mark Pope. He was a member of the 1994-95 Wildcats squad that lost to the Tar Heels, 74-61, in the Elite Eight. He played 13 minutes off the bench, totaling one point and three rebounds.
The Kentucky game joins several other high-profile non-conference matchups on UNC’s 2025-26 slate, including hosting Kansas on Nov. 14, facing Michigan State in the Ft. Myers Tipoff on Nov. 27 and playing Ohio State in the CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta. According to prior reports, UNC’s other opponents will include Central Arkansas, Radford, Navy, USC-Upstate, East Carolina and NC Central.
“If you can win over 80% of your non-conference games, your NET Ranking will be very high,” UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham said of basketball scheduling this offseason, via the school’s Carolina Insider. “If you want to get a high seed, you have to play a better schedule. You have to play top teams, and you have to win. This year, we were 7-5 in non-conference. That’s not good enough. We have to win over 80% of our non-conference games. Next year, we’re going to have seven home games. Last year, we only had five. That’ll be helpful.”
All ACC/SEC matchups: Florida at Duke, UNC 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 and Georgia at Florida State.
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