2017-2018 Big Ten ACC Challenge Matchups Announced

The Big Ten and ACC have finally announced the Big Ten ACC Challenge matchups for this upcoming season headlined by Duke at Indiana and defending Big Ten champion Purdue at Louisville. Duke should be back to full strength after a bad stretch last January that saw them drop into the middle of the pack in the ACC but can Indiana reload after a bad season last year to compete while also breaking in a new head coach? Archie Miller will have his hands full in his first year of the challenge but has a ton more talent than his prior teams to make it competitive.

Here is a full list of the games:

Random thoughts:

• The Minnesota game could be a blowout or it could be good. Miami is streaky and hard to figure out year to year. The matchup itself is a bit of a let down considering Minnesota's loft expectations on the year and who top tier ACC teams drew from the Big Ten but we can't fix that now.
• On that note, Michigan at North Carolina is laughably lopsided. Sorry Wolverines, this is definitely not your year.
• Same goes for you, Rutgers.
• The headline matchups, in no particular order, are: Wisconsin at Virginia, WSR NOTE (NOPE. Crime against basketball.) Purdue vs Louisville, Maryland at Syracuse, and Michigan State vs Notre Dame. Duke and Indiana is a historic matchup that will draw TV ratings but Duke’s reload vs. the rebuild at Indiana probably won’t be that close.
• Sneaky good game? Iowa at Virginia Tech could be a fun game to watch. Buzz Williams has quietly built Tech into a team that can pull upsets off on any given night and consistently competes. Iowa is young but had a ton of stellar freshmen last year so the game will be fun to watch.
• The Big Ten and ACC, based on my random pre-season thoughts on these teams, will split the challenge and go 7-7. There are some weird lopsided matchups in here but the bottom of each conference vs the other is always tough to predict.