GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) announced on Tuesday the home and away conference opponents for the Duke Blue Devils, North Carolina Tar Heels, and the N.C. State Wolfpack, as well as the rest of the league’s 15 women’s basketball teams for the upcoming 2014-15 season.
The league’s format for regular-season play is a 16-game ACC schedule in which each team will play two opponents home and away, and will face six opponents at home only and another six on the road only.
“ACC fans will appreciate the fact that the rival partners, those conference members that will play each other home and away each season, are the same for ACC men and women’s basketball,” said Nora Lynn Finch, senior associate commissioner for women’s basketball.
“For ACC women’s basketball, the only conference opponents who repeat home and away games each season will be the ‘rival partners’. Long-standing rivalries will be honored, and new conference rivalries will be developed with a schedule that is certain to entertain our fans and challenge our teams.”
The ACC will welcome the Louisville Cardinals to the league on July 1, 2014, a team that went 33-5 overall and 16-2 in the American Athletic Conference, and advanced to the NCAA Championship Regional Final for the second straight year.
The Triangle’s representative teams will be among the highlights of the ACC schedule as repeat opponents and rivals Duke and North Carolina and N.C. State and North Carolina will each play one another in home-and-away series’ during the season.
The Blue Devils will feature home and away contests with North Carolina and Wake Forest, while their eight-game home slate also includes Louisville, Clemson, Miami, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia Tech.
The Blue Devils will also travel to Boston College, Florida State, Georgia Tech, NC State, Notre Dame, and Virginia.
The Tar Heels will play home and away games against Duke and NC State as well as hosting Boston College, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Virginia and Wake Forest.
UNC will also travel to Clemson, Louisville, Miami, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Virginia Tech.
Among its eight home conference games, the Wolfpack will meet North Carolina and Wake Forest in home-and-away series play in addition to hosting Duke, Notre Dame, Clemson, Miami, Pittsburgh, and Virginia Tech.
The Wolfpack will also travel to face Louisville, Boston College, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Syracuse and Virginia.
The ACC was represented by nine postseason squads in 2014, with Duke, UNC, and N.C. State included in the group of eight teams that competed in the 2014 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship.
The number tied the ACC for the most of any conference, and North Carolina was one of three league teams that advanced to the Regional Finals.
In ESPN’s 25 teams to watch for the upcoming 2014-15 season, five ACC teams ranked among the 25, including three in the Top 10 – defending ACC-champion Notre Dame at No. 5, ACC-finalist Duke at No. 7 and North Carolina at No. 10.