The first thing Bruce Pearl was asked at the SEC Tip Off media days back in October in Birmingham was about the growth of the SEC. When he became Auburn’s head coach, it was a league largely dominated by Kentucky. Now, in his 10th year here, the SEC is one of America’s deepest leagues — and of the bunch, only Tennesssee has won more games than Auburn over the last six years.

So, in Pearl’s own words, to keep Auburn “relevant” in the pack, he’s scheduled games to take Auburn across the country to play high-profile programs — like the trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in this year’s season opener to play Baylor.

The next step in that is Auburn’s next game, one that was not scheduled under Auburn’s own control.

When Auburn tips off against Virginia Tech at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday at Neville Arena, it will be Auburn’s debut in the newly created SEC-ACC Challenge. This event — organized by the SEC, the ACC and ESPN — is the replacement of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge which had been played for the previous 23 years.

This challenge will replace the SEC-Big 12 challenge which was founded in 2013, too.

It means the SEC — a growing and improving league, but one still known as a football conference — goes up against arguably the nation’s most historic basketball conference with historic powers like North Carolina, Duke, Virginia, Syracuse, Louisville and N.C. State.

“I think it’s great for our league and the game coming at a time of the year. It’s getting close to bowl season, it’s getting close to a time where the College Football Playoffs are getting closer,” Pearl said Tuesday. “All the championship games are this weekend. And yet, you do something like this, it brings a little bit more attention to basketball.”

Six current ACC teams have won national championships at some point in their history. Only three SEC teams have won titles and of the 11 total men’s basketball championships the conference has, Kentucky owns eight of them.

But the SEC is starting to catch up.

In 2023, nine SEC teams are ranked or receiving votes in the most recent Associated Press top 25 — including Auburn — and only six ACC teams. The SEC had eight teams in the 2023 NCAA tournament. The ACC had five.

“I’m sure (former SEC commissioner) Mike Slive and commissioner (Greg) Sankey looked at SEC basketball a decade or so ago and recognized that, at least on the men’s side, we weren’t where they wanted us to be,” Pearl said Tuesday. “We had Kentucky, Billy Donovan at Florida, some moments at Tennessee, Arkansas. Everybody’s had their moments. Overall as a league, the ACC has been clearly ahead of our conference.”

Pearl said this event makes sense because of the geography of the SEC relative to the SEC. Yet the series will also create some rarely played matchups. Of this year’s 13 matchups, just seven are opponents who have played each other more than five times in their history and only two have met more than 15 times ever (Mississippi State vs Georgia Tech and Georiga vs Florida State).

Auburn’s game is on the second of this season’s two-night event. After night one, the SEC leads the challenge 4-3 with Kentucky, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Missouri all winning.

On Tuesday night in Lexington, Kentucky, the home of the SEC’s most historic program, head coach John Calipari turned to his student section, coaching them to not chant, “Overrated!” at No. 8 Miami in the final minutes as Kentucky finished off a 95-73 win.

He instead coaxed them to cheer for the Wildcats. So at the SEC’s only true basketball school on the inaugural night of the new SEC-ACC Challenge, the fans changed their message.

“SEC! SEC! SEC!” they chanted.

“Overall as a league, the ACC has been clearly ahead of our conference,“ Pearl said Tuesday. “Now we’re obviously very competitive with any conference in the country. We obviously need to try to keep that going. These matchups, they matter to me. I want to represent our league well. We still own the best nonconference record in the SEC over the last seven years. What would I like to be able to say in January when we’re done with our nonconference slate is that — through seven seasons. This game matters, historically, as well.”

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]