Pitt Basketball Playing Fewer ACC Games Next Season

PITTSBURGH — The Pitt Panthers will have their ACC schedule change next season, impacting the season as a whole.

The ACC announced that their men's basketball teams will play 18 games next season, instead of 20, which they have done since the 2019-20 season, or the past five seasons.

Each ACC team will play one primary opponent home-and-away and another secondary opponent home-and-away, determined annually, as well as 14 other opponents, facing seven at home and seven on the road.

Pitt has Syracuse as their primary opponent, which makes it 12 straight season that they will face twice in the regular season.

The Panthers and Orange are 12-12 against each other in the ACC, with the Panthers 6-5 at the Petersen Events Center and 6-7 in Syracuse.

The conference played 18 games from the 2012-13 to 2018-19 seasons, as Pitt and Syracuse joined the ACC in the 2013-14 season and then Notre Dame and Louisville did so ahead of the 2014-15 campaign.

Even with three new additions to the conference in Cal and Stanford from the Pac-12 and SMU from the American ahead of the 2024-25 season, the ACC kept 20 games. They did change the home-and-away opponents from six opponents the previous four seasons, to just three.

Pitt played Syracuse, Louisville and North Carolina for their home-and-away opponents last season, beating Syracuse twice, losing to Louisville twice and splitting the season-series with North Carolina.

The ACC revealed that the change came after they collaborated with coaches, athletic directors, television partners and external consultants and after looking at the men's basketball product the conference put out, plus their metrics and scheduling at the current time.

“As a league, we have been transparent about the importance of ACC Men’s Basketball and specifically our commitment to ensuring it is best positioned for the future,” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement.

“Moving to an 18-game conference schedule is a direct result of our ongoing strategic review and analysis and provides our schools a better balance of non-conference and conference games, while also allowing them more autonomy in the scheduling process. This decision reflects our on-going prioritization to do what’s best for ACC Men’s Basketball, and we appreciate the thoughtfulness of our membership and the support from our television partners.”

Matt Norlander of CBS Sports reported that following a 2024-25 season, where only four ACC teams made the NCAA Tournament, the conference sped up the decision to cut back on games. The four teams making the "Big Dance" was the lowest for the ACC since it expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

ACC coaches and athletic directors had been asking for a reduction previously as well, as they view some of the games as hurting their chances of making the NCAA Tournament, especially with how the Selection Committee uses the NET Rankings system.

The ACC did perform poorly in their non-conference last season as well, which was the worst of the Power Five conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, SEC), and they lost more games than they won against the top 100 teams in the country.

KenPom also hasn't had the ACC higher than the fifth best conference in the past five seasons, after the ACC held the reputation as one of the best conferences in men's basketball.

The ACC, Big 12, Big East and SEC currently have 18-game schedules, while the Big Ten still has 20 games.