CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Louisville basketball coach Pat Kelsey is going to see a lot of Andy Enfield‘s SMU Mustangs moving forward.
“We play them twice, right?” Kelsey asked Wednesday, during ACC Tipoff at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown.
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Yes. When the conference announced in May it was reverting to an 18-game schedule in 2025-26, the Cardinals drew SMU as their primary partner. That means they’re locked into a home-and-home series with the Mustangs every year until league officials change their minds.
“I’d rather not play them twice,” Kelsey said.
Kelsey meant that as a compliment to Enfield’s basketball acumen and recruiting chops. They first crossed paths as assistant coaches cutting their teeth in the ACC during the early 2000s — Kelsey under Skip Prosser at Wake Forest, Enfield under Leonard Hamilton at Florida State.
“The basketball community is very small and close-knit,” Enfield told The Courier Journal. “You see a lot of assistant coaches; and I always took the attitude that, even though you’re trying to beat them on the court, there are a lot of good guys. Pat’s one of them.”
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Louisville basketball schedule 2025-26: Breaking down Pat Kelsey’s ACC slate for Year 2
If you asked U of L fans which ACC program they’d want as a permanent rival, however, most would probably name a handful of other options before considering SMU — a second-year member that has made only 12 NCAA Tournament appearances across its 109 seasons of existence. The Cards own a 9-2 record in the all-time series and a 17.3-point average margin of victory. The Mustangs’ two wins came on March 17, 1967, and Feb. 16, 1985.
What gives? The way Paul Brazeau explained it to The Courier Journal made it seem as if Louisville and SMU were afterthoughts relative to the 16 other league members.
“It just came down to, ‘All right, what are the pieces left?'” said Brazeau, the ACC’s senior associate commissioner for men’s basketball since 2014.
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Can you manufacture a rivalry? We’re about to find out.
What led the ACC to pairing Louisville basketball with SMU?
Jan 21, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; SMU Mustangs guard Chuck Harris (3) dribbles against the defense of Louisville Cardinals guard J’Vonne Hadley (1) during the second half at Moody Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images
The ACC adopted an 18-game schedule for the first time since the 2018-19 season in an effort to get more members into the NCAA Tournament after only four received bids this past spring.
In addition to a primary partner, programs were assigned a home-and-home series against a variable partner that will change every year — Louisville drew Duke in 2025-26 — and will play 14 of the 15 remaining members once. The odd man out on the Cards’ schedule this season: Florida State.
Commissioner Jim Phillips on Tuesday acknowledged the schedule change inevitably comes at the cost of some league traditions — see: N.C. State not visiting North Carolina for the first time since 1919.
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“We didn’t take it lightly,” Phillips said. “We sat down and we looked at, ‘What are the must-have rivalries that we need to try to make sure that we continue?’ And then, ‘Where are the ones that, from time to time, we will reengage?'”
Before going any further, here are all nine of the primary partnerships beginning this season:
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Boston College-Notre Dame
“Some of the partners were geographic, traditional — Duke vs. North Carolina, the two Florida schools, the two Virginia schools, some of the old Big East schools,” Brazeau said. “Then, we only had a few combinations left that we could choose from.”
Notre Dame is Louisville’s closest ACC neighbor. The Cards and the Fighting Irish have met 46 times dating back to 1952 and played some thrilling games as members of the Big East. Why weren’t they paired together?
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“Boston College vs. Notre Dame has been a longtime thing — two Catholic schools,” Brazeau said. “You come down to where you’ve got only so many matchups left; how can you maximize it?”
Jan 21, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; SMU Mustangs center Samet Yigitoglu (24) bumps into Louisville Cardinals guard Chucky Hepburn (24) as he walks up court during the first half at Moody Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images
Scouting reports: A deep dive into every member of Pat Kelsey’s 2025-26 Louisville basketball roster
Brazeau noted U of L and SMU’s brief history together in the American Conference. The Cards spent one season in the league, 2013-14, before joining the ACC. The Mustangs called it home from 2013-24. The most competitive meeting between the programs in recent memory came on March 5, 2014, at Moody Coliseum; when Russ Smith overcame a stomach virus to score a game-high 26 points (22 coming on 6-for-6 shooting from 3-point range during the second half). No. 11 Louisville erased a 14-point deficit en route to an 84-71 victory over No. 18 SMU.
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In an ideal world, the Cards and the Mustangs will have more top-25 showdowns in the years to come. They went a combined 31-9 in ACC play during the 2024-25 regular season, and both reached the quarterfinal round of the conference tournament. But U of L dominated their only meeting, 98-73 in Dallas, behind record-setting performances from Chucky Hepburn and Reyne Smith and a stingy defense that held Enfield’s high-scoring offense to 27 points during the first half.
“Louisville’s got a big national following in basketball,” Brazeau said. “So, for them to go into the Dallas market every year, that’s an attractive game. … (It’s good for) the SMU folks and the Dallas community.”
SMU ended Enfield’s first season ranked 48th in the NET, 20 spots behind the Cards, after losing to Oklahoma State in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament. The Mustangs return three starters, including leading scorer Boopie Miller and ACC All-Defensive team member B.J. Edwards; and their incoming five-man freshman class ranks sixth nationally on 247Sports.com. The formulas over at BartTorvik.com project a 19-12 (9-9 ACC) finish to 2025-26.
“I think we have a lot of upside in our roster because we are so young at certain positions,” Enfield said. “They’ll get better and better as the season goes on.”
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“Both programs are headed in a good direction,” Brazeau added. “You’ve got to play to make them rivals.”
Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: ACC is manufacturing a Louisville-SMU basketball rivalry. Here’s why
