The Florida State men’s basketball team will play at Tennessee in this year’s SEC/ACC Challenge, it was announced Friday. The Seminoles and Volunteers will meet in Knoxville on Tuesday, Dec. 1.
 
“We’re excited about the SEC/ACC Challenge,” FSU coach Luke Loucks said. “Traveling to Tennessee will be a great early-season opportunity for our team as we continue to blend a highly rated signing class with a distinguished group of transfers. This game will be another piece of a strong non-conference schedule intentionally put together to prepare our team for the ACC and postseason.”
 
This will be the fourth season of the SEC/ACC Challenge and the first time FSU and Tennessee have met in the annual event. FSU has previously played Georgia at home in 2023 and 2025 and at LSU in 2024.

Florida State has won two straight meetings in the series, defeating the Volunteers 60-57 in the 2019 Emerald Coast Classic and winning 101-90 in Tallahassee during the 1988-89 season.

The Seminoles will play non-conference games against Florida A&M in Tampa on Nov. 2 in the season opener and travel to Jacksonville to face Houston (according to a report by CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein). FSU will also play a return game against Dayton, hosting the Flyers at the Donald L. Tucker Center at a date to be determined.
 
FSU welcomes 13 newcomers for the 2026-27 season, including eight four-star prospects. Loucks’ first high school class is ranked as the nation’s No. 11 prep signing class according to 247Sports, and the full class is the consensus No. 2 group in the ACC while ranking No. 16 nationally by 247Sports. The group of five transfers is first in the ACC and No. 4 in the country in On3’s Team Transfer Portal Index.
 
Last season, the Seminoles posted an 18-15 record with a 10-8 mark in the ACC to set the program record for conference wins by a first-year head coach.