Men's Basketball

May 12, 2010

EAST LANSING, Mich. - 2010 Final Four participant Michigan State will face defending National Champion Duke in the 2010 ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The game will be played in Durham, N.C., on Wednesday, Dec. 1. This is the second straight season the Spartans will play a road game at the defending NCAA Champion, having played at North Carolina last December. The Big Ten captured last year's challenge by a 6-5 margin.

Duke leads the all-time series with Michigan State, 5-2, including a 1-0 advantage in Durham. The Spartans, however, did win the most recent meeting, a 78-68 decision in the Sweet 16 of the 2005 NCAA Tournament in Austin. The game will also feature two of the game's greatest coaches as MSU's Tom Izzo and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski are the only two coaches to take the same team to six Final Fours in a 12-year period since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

The Spartans and Blue Devils have met twice in the Challenge's history, with Duke winning both contests. In the 2003, Duke claimed a 72-50 victory in East Lansing. One year later, the Blue Devils pulled away late for an 81-74 win in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Overall, MSU is a Big Ten-best 5-5 in ACC/Big Ten Challenge history. In the inaugural year of the challenge in 1999, MSU won at North Carolina, 86-76. The following year, MSU defeated UNC in East Lansing, 77-64. A 2001 meeting with Virginia at the Richmond Coliseum was cancelled due to unplayable floor conditions. In 2002, MSU defeated Virginia, 82-75, in East Lansing. After the two games against Duke, Michigan State defeated Georgia Tech, 88-86, in East Lansing in 2005. Boston College defeated MSU, 65-58, in Chestnut Hill, Mass., in 2006. In 2007, the Spartans were impressive in an 81-58 win over North Carolina State. MSU has dropped games to North Carolina the last two seasons, falling, 98-63, in 2008 at Detroit's Ford Field and, 89-82, in 2009 in Chapel Hill.

This is the sixth-straight season that all 11 Big Ten squads will participate in the challenge. ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will televise all 11 games, marking the ninth consecutive year that every game will be televised nationally. Since 2000, the two conferences have combined to make 19 Final Four appearances and captured six of the last 11 NCAA Championships.

12th Annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge
(Game times and ESPN platform designations will be announced later this summer.)
Monday, Nov. 29
Virginia at Minnesota

Tuesday, Nov. 30
Iowa at Wake Forest
Michigan at Clemson
Ohio State at Florida State
North Carolina at Illinois
Georgia Tech at Northwestern

Wednesday, Dec. 1
Indiana at Boston College
Purdue at Virginia Tech
Michigan State at Duke
North Carolina State at Wisconsin
Maryland at Penn State

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