Boston College Basketball to Face Purdue in 2013 ACC-Big Ten Challenge

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The pairings for the next ACC-Big Ten Challenge have been announced, and in these newly-expanded conferences, there was some doubt as to who the Boston College Eagles might play. On Wednesday, we found out that the draw is the Purdue Boilermakers.

The Eagles will head out to West Lafayette, Indiana on December 4 for their second consecutive Challenge road game as they hope to continue their new win streak.

This will be the teams’ first-ever meeting in this annual event, and only the third meeting all-time between Boston College and Purdue. The first of those meetings came on December 28, 1978 as the Eagles lost to the Boilermakers in the Honolulu Classic, 82-54, and the second was a 71-64 loss on November 26, 2008 at Madison Square Garden in the NIT Season Tip-Off semifinals.

Both teams had down years last season, though heading in different directions. The Eagles were 16-17 in 2012-13, a seven-game improvement over their reset season the previous year, while the Boilermakers went 16-18, a six-win drop after losing some key players in the offseason. Each school will be starting from about the same spot in the Fall of 2013, which makes this an intriguing matchup.

Boston College has historically done very well in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge since joining the conference in the mid-2000s, improving their record to 6-1 after defeating Penn State in State College last year. On the other hand, Purdue started this event at 2-6 over their first eight games, but they have now won four years in a row. Last year, Purdue beat Clemson 73-61 on the road at Littlejohn Coliseum.

Several high-profile matchups in this year’s upcoming Challenge include North Carolina vs. Michigan State, Duke vs. Michigan, and Syracuse vs. Indiana.