With only 60 days until the college basketball season begins, the ACC announced this season’s conference schedule. The first day of conference play will be on 12/28/2016 with Wake Forest at Florida State and Virginia at Louisville headlining. The regular season concludes on 3/4/17 with top-ranked Duke taking a trip down Tobacco Road to take on heated rival North Carolina. Three days later the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament is scheduled to begin with a champion being crowned on the eve of Selection Sunday.

Toughest Non-Conference Schedule

North Carolina: Of the fourteen non-conference games the Tar Heels play this fall, ten are against teams that won at least 20 games last season. After a short trip to New Orleans to take on Tulane to start the season, UNC will play three mid-major schools that combined for 77 wins last season. The first test is Chattanooga, who returns their top three scorers from a 29-win campaign. They follow that up with a matchup with the always tough Long Beach State, who are led by a pair of guards in Travis Hammond and Justin Bibbins. The final game for the Tar Heels before the Maui Invitational is at Hawaii. This game has the potential to be a trap game for UNC. Last season Hawaii posted a record of 28-6 and returns three of their top four scorers.

After Hawaii, North Carolina is slated to participate in a stacked Maui Invitational alongside Uconn, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Georgetown, Oregon, and Chaminade. UNC doesn’t get much time to relax after their trip to Hawaii with the ACC/B1G Challenge a week later. This year the Tar Heels will travel to Bloomington, Indiana to take on a Hoosiers squad that reached the Sweet Sixteen last season.

After the ACC/B1G Challenge, North Carolina gets three straight games at home against Radford, Davidson, and Tennessee. The Tar Heels will then travel to Las Vegas to take on the Kentucky Wildcats in a battle of blue-bloods. To wrap up non-conference play, the Tar Heels return home for two final games against Northern Iowa and Monmouth. Northern Iowa shocked the college basketball world last season when the Panthers beat the Tar Heels 71-67 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Monmouth won 28 games last season and shouldn’t be overlooked by UNC before heading into conference play.

Also considered: Clemson, Duke, Notre Dame, Virginia

Softest Non-Conference Schedule

North Carolina State: On the opposite end of the spectrum from the Tar Heels we find the Wolfpack. North Carolina State’s non-conference schedule features only two 20-win teams from a season ago, with the possibility of one or two more in the Paradise Jam. The Wolfpack are joined in the U.S. Virgin Islands for the Paradise Jam by Loyola(Chi), Saint Joseph’s, Oral Roberts, Ole Miss, Montana, Washington State, and Creighton. After returning home from the Bahamas, the Wolfpack will have a single home game versus Loyola(Chi). Two days later North Carolina State will travel to Champaign, Illinois for their part in the ACC/B1G Challenge. After playing Illinois the Wolfpack are set to spend the entire month of December home in Raleigh. The only team with 20 wins that the Wolfpack will see in December is Tennessee State.

Also considered: Miami, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech

Best Non-Conference Weekend

12/9/16-12/11/16: With conference play inching closer, a lot of teams are looking for one more chance to pick up a statement win in the non-conference. Saturday, December 10th is highlighted by the Never Forget Tribute Classic and features neutral court matchups between Notre Dame and Villanova as well as Pittsburgh and Penn State. Both Notre Dame and Pitt are projected to finish somewhere around 10th in the league and need quality out of conference wins if they have any chance of making the Big Dance. One other game of note, Duke travels out to Nevada to take on UNLV in a late non-conference road game.

Sunday, December 11th only has three games involving ACC schools, but all three should be good tests. Virginia Tech hosts Ole Miss at noon to start the day. The Hokies are a program on the rise and a win against another Power 5 school would go a long way in the eyes of the committee. Florida State hosts instate rival Florida after going into Gainesville and winning on a last second shot by Dwayne Bacon. The final matchup of the day will take place in Chapel Hill and will feature the Tennessee Volunteers and the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Best ACC Weekend

1/14/17-1/16/17: With conference play in full swing, everybody is fighting for position in the standings. Saturday, January 14th features multiple compelling matchups including Virginia at Clemson, Miami at Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame at Virginia Tech. The headliner on Saturday is a matchup between Hall of Fame coaches when Mike Krzyzewski takes his Duke Blue Devils to Louisville to take on Rick Pitino and his Cardinals. After all the action on Saturday you can catch your breath on Sunday with only one game on the schedule. Georgia Tech travels to Raleigh to take on the Wolfpack of North Carolina State. Both teams struggled last season and will be looking to climb up from the bottom of the standing. Monday may not be considered part of the weekend, but the ACC always has a prime time matchup on Mondays and this one is no different. Syracuse travels south to take on Roy Williams and North Carolina in a game that will go a long way to determining how the top half of the standings will look.