Louisville basketball draws Arkansas road trip in 2025 ACC/SEC Challenge
It'll be Pat Kelsey's Cardinals against John Calipari and Kenny Payne's Arkansas Razorbacks on Dec. 3 at Bud Walton Arena.
Calipari lost to U of L only three times during his 15 seasons at archrival Kentucky. When he took over the Razorbacks last spring, he hired Payne as his associate head coach. The Cards fired Payne after going 12-52 across his two seasons at the helm.
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This will be Louisville's second appearance in the annual showdown between the ACC and the SEC. In Year 1 of the Kelsey era, it lost to Ole Miss, 86-63, at the KFC Yum! Center.
The Cards' lopsided defeat was one of 14 the ACC suffered in last year's event. If the conference is to make a return to form in 2025-26, it needs to fare much better than that.
Here's a look at the full 2025 ACC/SEC Challenge field:
Tuesday, Dec. 2
Florida at Duke
Georgia at Florida State
Miami at Ole Miss
North Carolina at Kentucky
Missouri at Notre Dame
Texas A&M at Pitt
Tennessee at Syracuse
Virginia Tech at South Carolina
Oklahoma at Wake Forest
Wednesday, Dec. 3
LSU at Boston College
Clemson at Alabama
Mississippi State at Georgia Tech
Louisville at Arkansas
N.C. State at Auburn
SMU at Vanderbilt
Virginia at Texas
Arkansas finished 22-14 in Year 1 under Calipari. The Razorbacks earned a No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament and, after pulling off upsets of No. 7 Kansas and No. 2 St. John's, fell to No. 3 Texas Tech in the Sweet 16.
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Calipari lost a lot of talent from his 2024-25 roster, including Jonas Aidoo, Boogie Fland, Johnell Davis, Adou Thiero and Zvonimir Ivišić. But his incoming high school recruiting class, headlined by guards Darius Acuff Jr. and Meleek Thomas, ranks sixth in the country on 247Sports.com. Key returners include Trevon Brazile, Karter Knox, Billy Richmond lll and DJ Wagner.
As of Wednesday, Arkansas was 11th in ESPN's way-too-early rankings for the 2025-26 season. Louisville was seventh.
The Cards and Razorbacks have split their eight meetings dating back to 1979. The programs last played Nov. 21, 2022, in the first round of the Maui Invitational; Arkansas won, 80-54. U of L hasn't visited Fayetteville since Dec. 21, 1996, when it walked out of Bud Walton Arena with a 91-88 overtime victory.
Louisville has confirmed the dates of the following 2025-26 nonconference games:
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The Cards will also host Ohio at the Yum! Center, according to a copy of a signed contract between the two schools obtained via an open records request. A date has not yet been finalized.
U of L also reportedly has another neutral-site game on the books: against cross-state rival Cincinnati. It'll square off against the Bearcats at Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati; a date has not yet been announced.
The 2025-26 season will tip off with exhibitions against Kansas (Oct. 24) and Bucknell (TBD) at the Yum! Center.
Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
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This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville basketball schedule: UofL vs Arkansas in ACC/SEC Challenge
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