played either Duke or UNC in back-to-back years or within a 3 year period. I know when the Challenge first started the matchups were based on where teams finished in their conference the previous year. What I am unsure of is whether that is still the primary factor or if it has evolved more to trying to give the schools a more diverse opponent based on who was home or away the previous year.

The 1 downside to basing the matchups on who was home or away the previous year is that teams will have their choice of opponents cut in half because of the altering between home and away. Basically if Duke and Indiana both play home/away games in the same year, then they could never be matchup in the Challenge. Would ESPN be okay with that especially if both schools finished first (assuming regular season) last year and projected to be in the Top 10 when the Challenge is scheduled to take place?