Florida State, which advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in 2011, will travel to face Michigan State on Nov. 30 at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Mich. in the 13th Annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge presented by Dick’s Sporting Goods.
The game between the Seminoles and the Spartans will be played as one of the marquee games of the 12-game event and will be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks. ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3.com will combine to televise all 12 games of the two-day event, one more than in the previous 12 challenges.
The 2011 ACC/Big Ten Challenge involves six teams ranked an early preseason top 25 by ESPN.com senior college basketball writer Andy Katz, including three in the top five: No. 1 North Carolina, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 5 Duke, No. 11 Wisconsin, No. 21 Florida State and No. 23 Michigan.
The Seminoles finished the 2011 season ranked 19th nationally in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ poll, finished in third place in the ACC with an 11-5 record and defeated four ranked teams in finishing with a 23-11 record. The Seminoles return three of five starters and six players with extensive starting experience to its 2012 team which is ranked in the nation’s top 25 in most of the polls already released by the national media including Andy Katz of ESPN and Jeff Goodman, formerly of FoxSports.
Florida State is the third winningest program in the ACC in the last six years (since the start of the 2005-06 season) in total ACC regular season and ACC Tournament games. The Seminoles have won 58 games against ACC completion during that span. Florida State played in the 2009 ACC Championship game and is one of only two teams in the ACC (also Duke) which has finished with double digit ACC wins and in the top four of the ACC standings in each of the last three seasons
