According to CBSSports’ College Basketball Insider Jon Rothstein, numerous ACC schools have been informed by the ACC to not schedule games for the first two days of the 2019-20 college basketball schedule, because they are planning conference games to open the year.
Why would the ACC do this, when it hasn’t been done in decades?
The launch of the ACC Network is scheduled to launch in 2019.
This looks like a ploy to spike the ratings of the new network to start their 1st basketball season.
The last time NC State opened up the college basketball season against an ACC opponent was when the Wolfpack faced Wake Forest and North Carolina in their 1st two games of the 1979-80 season in the Big Four Tournament. The Big Four Tournament was an early-season tournament consisting of the ACC teams on Tobacco Road: NC State, North Carolina, Wake Forest and Duke. The Big Four didn’t always kick off the season, but it always fell early in the year. In the 11 seasons of the Big Four Tournament (1971-81), the Wolfpack started the season facing two of their ACC Tobacco Road rivals only twice (also the 76-77 season).
Prior to the Big Four Tournament, the Wolfpack only started the season with two ACC games twice (1962-63 & 1967-68).
In total, since the formation of the ACC in 1953, NC State has only started the college basketball season against an ACC opponent 4 times, let alone 2 consecutive ACC games to open the season.
1979-80: UNC – 84-97 (L) & Wake Forest – 70-65 (W)
1976-77: UNC – 66-78 (L) & Duke – 82-84 (L)
1967-68: Wake Forest – 79-63 (W) & Maryland – 75-62 (W)
1962-63: Clemson – 56-55 (W) & Wake Forest – 58-66 (L)