July 15, 2009
EVANSTON, Ill. -
ESPN announced today the start times and television designations for the contests in the 2009 ACC/Big Ten Challenge Presented by Dick's Sporting Goods. Northwestern's road game against North Carolina State will tip at 6 p.m. Central time on Dec. 1 and is being televised live by ESPNU.
For the fifth consecutive year, the event will feature 11 games and will include two telecasts on ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network. ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to televise the remaining nine games.
The 2009 ACC/Big Ten Challenge schedule, including times and outlets, is listed below.
Northwestern is 3-7 in its first 10 ACC/Big Ten Challenge games. The Wildcats defeated Florida State 73-59 last season. N.C. State won the previous meeting with the Wildcats as part of the Challenge, 74-49 Dec. 4, 2002 in Raleigh.
ESPNU is in the process of being rebranded by Comcast and DirecTV to ensure wider viewerships by pushing the network from sports packages to digital carriage. Together, the deals should add 21 million households to lift ESPNU's roster to 46 million subscribers.
11th Annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge
Mon., Nov. 30
Penn State at Virginia, 6 p.m., ESPN2
Tue., Dec. 1
Wake Forest at Purdue, 6 p.m., ESPN
Maryland at Indiana, 6:30 p.m., ESPN2
Northwestern at North Carolina State, 6 p.m., ESPNU
Michigan State at North Carolina, 8 p.m., ESPN
Virginia Tech at Iowa, 8:30 p.m., ESPN2
Wed., Dec. 2
Illinois at Clemson, 6:15 p.m., ESPN
Boston College at Michigan, 6:30 p.m., ESPN2
Minnesota at Miami (Fla.), 6:15 or 6:30 p.m., ESPNU
Duke at Wisconsin, 8:15 p.m., ESPN
Florida State at Ohio State, 8:30 p.m., ESPN2
All times Central