From Contributed Reports

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team will meet NC State in Nashville, Tenn., during the upcoming 2026-27 season, as announced Friday morning by Complete Sports Management.
The Volunteers and Wolfpack will clash Dec. 6 at Bridgestone Arena in a neutral-site affair. The game time and TV network are both to be determined. The contest will be part of a doubleheader that also features a matchup between Georgia Tech and Murray State.
This is the second year in a row Tennessee will play a game Dec. 6 at Bridgestone Arena, as it met eventual NCAA semifinalist Illinois on that date there last season.
NC State is under the direction of first-year head coach Justin Gainey, who spent the last five seasons as an assistant at Tennessee, including the past four as the associate head coach. Gainey helped the Volunteers to a 134-48 record, four Sweet 16 trips, three Elite Eight bids and two SEC titles before being tabbed March 31 to lead his alma mater.
This will be the second time in the last four years the Volunteers and Wolfpack play a neutral-site game in December. Tennessee posted a 79-70 victory against NC State, which went on to win the ACC Tournament title and reach the Final Four, on Dec. 16, 2023, at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas. Fifth-year guard Josiah-Jordan James led all scorers with a then-career-high-tying 23 points in the Hall of Fame Series matchup.
Overall, Tennessee is 5-7 against NC State in a series that dates back nearly a century, to March 1, 1929, when the Wolfpack claimed a 48-32 win in Atlanta in the Southern Conference Tournament.
The Volunteers are 0-3 at home, 1-3 on the road and 4-1 at neutral sites versus NC State. They have won the last four neutral-site contests, as well as the last two overall. Prior to the triumph in San Antonio, Tennessee registered a 67-58 decision on Nov. 24, 2017, in Paradise Island, Bahamas, in the Battle 4 Atlantis third-place game.
Tennessee sports a 128-102 all-time record against the current ACC membership. That includes a superb 17-6 mark under head coach Rick Barnes, with a dazzling 10-2 ledger over the last five seasons (2021-26). The Volunteers have won their last seven neutral-site clashes versus ACC foes, dating to an 89-72 victory over North Carolina on Nov. 21, 2021, in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament in Uncasville, Conn.
The Volunteers are 22-16 at Bridgestone Arena, including 14-13 in SEC Tournament competition and 8-3 in all other competitions. They have played just three non-SEC Tournament games there in the last 16 seasons (2010-26).
Team and venue pre-sales will run from June 3 at 10 a.m. to June 4 at 11 p.m. Public tickets will then go on sale the following day at 10 a.m.