Miami was first. Who’s next? A look at Kentucky’s possible ACC/SEC Challenge foes in 2024.

We’ll have to wait until season two to declare a winner in the ACC/SEC Challenge.

The new college basketball series tipped off Tuesday and ended Wednesday in a tie. Seven victories apiece.

The most impressive win among the 14 games arguably belonged to the Kentucky Wildcats, who played a back-and-forth first half with No. 8-ranked Miami before blowing the Hurricanes out of Rupp Arena with an offensive onslaught after halftime. (Honorable mention to North Carolina putting up 100 in a win over Tennessee, Arkansas beating No. 7 Duke at home, and Clemson winning at Alabama).

This should be a fun showcase for some of the sport’s top teams moving forward.

Who’s up next for Kentucky? Good question. We probably won’t get the answer for several months.

Whoever it is will be a marquee name and/or a team with lofty expectations going into next season. The schedule-makers surely won’t settle for anything less when it comes to the SEC’s biggest basketball brand. And whichever ACC foe the powers that be pick for the Wildcats will join a 2024-25 schedule that is already shaping up to be another formidable one.

Here’s what’s on the slate for the Cats so far:

▪ Duke on Nov. 12 in the Champions Classic in Atlanta, a battle of the current top two recruiting classes in the country, with the Blue Devils’ group led by generational talent Cooper Flagg.

▪ Ohio State on Dec. 21 in the CBS Sports Classic (location TBA).

▪ Gonzaga in Seattle (with a date not yet announced).

▪ Louisville in Rupp Arena.

▪ The addition of Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC, both of which will play UK at least once. Texas currently has the nation’s No. 4 recruiting class, by the way.

▪ And the ACC/SEC Challenge matchup.

It’s worth a reminder that the Kentucky-Indiana series won’t return until the 2025-26 season, and — with the ACC/SEC game more likely than not to be a road trip for the Wildcats — UK could look to add another big-name program to its non-conference home slate, though such efforts often necessitate heading the other way for a road trip later.

Obviously, UK won’t face either Duke or Louisville in the 2024 ACC/SEC Challenge, with both of those teams already on the schedule elsewhere.

So, which ACC team makes the most sense for the Wildcats next season? With the Cards and the Blue Devils out of the picture, three schools stand out as possible UK foes.

Miami

An SEC spokesperson told the Herald-Leader this week that — while it won’t always be possible — the two leagues will make their best effort to rotate home and away games for each team in the ACC/SEC Challenge as this series continues. Since Kentucky got to play in Rupp Arena in year one, that means the Cats are likely to be headed on the road in year two.

How about a trip to Miami?

It would make sense. One, it gives the Hurricanes a return game after coming to Lexington this season. Two, Miami has been one of the ACC’s very best teams recently.

The Canes shared the 2022-23 regular-season title before advancing to the Final Four. Their 29 league wins over the past two seasons are second only to Duke’s 30, and Miami is the only team in the country that made it to the Elite Eight in each of the past two NCAA Tournaments.

The Hurricanes should be good again next year, too. Coach Jim Larranaga has some promising talent on his current roster that could return for another season, plus a top-10 national recruiting class, led by shooting guard Jalil Bethea, the No. 7 prospect in the country.

UK has played at Miami only once — in 2000, when longtime Wildcats assistant Leonard Hamilton was the Canes’ head coach. Another point in Miami’s favor to get a rematch: The next two schools on this list both got home games in the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge.

North Carolina

This one is obvious. Sure, the Wildcats and Tar Heels already play regularly in the CBS Sports Classic — with the next date coming Dec. 16 in Atlanta — but these two programs often create magical moments when they meet on the court. Counting only John Calipari’s time in Lexington, the UK-UNC series has featured two Elite Eight games — one win for each side — the 103-100 thriller in Vegas, and the 2011 matchup made famous by Anthony Davis’ game-saving block. (And that list is leaving out some good ones.)

Next year will mark a decade since the Cats and Heels last met on a home court, something the two blue bloods did in every season but one between 2000 and 2014.

North Carolina has two top-10 recruits lined up for the 2024 class, young talent on the current roster, and the Tar Heels will surely do well in the transfer portal if that’s a need this spring.

Virginia

The Cats and the Cavaliers have met just one time in the past 57 years, and they had to go all the way to Hawaii to do it, with Virginia beating Kentucky in the 2002 Maui Invitational.

Tony Bennett’s team pulled off one of the more impressive wins in the inaugural challenge — a 59-47 victory over No. 14-ranked Texas A&M — and the Cavaliers have won or shared the ACC regular-season title in four of the past six seasons. They’re also the most recent team from either league to win a national championship, taking home the NCAA title in 2019.

This could certainly be one of the marquee matchups of the 2024 challenge.

The rest of the ACC

Other than Miami and Duke, the five ACC teams that went on the road this week — and, thus, could reasonably expect a home game next year — were Boston College, Clemson, N.C. State, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech.

None of those games would serve as particularly exciting matchups for Kentucky next year. Clemson finished a game out of first place in the ACC last season and ranks fourth in the league (according to KenPom) this season. Notre Dame has a traditional rivalry with Kentucky, but the Irish are one of the worst teams in their league. N.C. State has two national titles on its resume, but none in the past three decades. None of those teams projects as a power in the 2024-25 season.

The other possibilities — all teams that played home games this week — would be Florida State, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Wake Forest. Of those programs, Syracuse has the richest history, and UK hasn’t been to the building formerly known as the Carrier Dome since 1994, but the Orange are likely to still be in rebuild mode under new coach Adrian Autry. A trip to Pittsburgh would be a homecoming for Calipari, but it’s not a terribly interesting matchup.

The slate for the first ACC/SEC Challenge was announced June 28, and a similar timeline can be expected for the reveal of the games in year two.

2023 ACC/SEC Challenge results

No. 12 Kentucky 95, No. 8 Miami 73

Georgia Tech 67, No. 21 Mississippi State 59

Clemson 85, No. 23 Alabama 77

South Carolina 65, Notre Dame 53

Syracuse 80, LSU 57

Missouri 71, Pittsburgh 64

Ole Miss 72, N.C. State 52

Arkansas 80, No. 7 Duke 75

No. 17 North Carolina 100, No. 10 Tennessee 92

Virginia 59, No. 14 Texas A&M 47

Wake Forest 82, Florida 71

Boston College 80, Vanderbilt 62

Georgia 68, Florida State 66

Auburn 74, Virginia Tech 57

Three takeaways from the first annual ACC/SEC Basketball Challenge

Kentucky made a major statement against No. 8 Miami. ‘A moment that we’ll never forget.’

Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s smashing of Miami at Rupp Arena

The Reed and Rob connection has Kentucky clicking. ‘Ain’t no such thing as a starter.’

How much does the new Rupp Arena court cost? And what will happen to the ‘old’ one?