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The ACC/Big Ten Challenge is upon us once again. It started with Wisconsin's visit to Virginia Tech on Monday. Or did you forget?

If so, you're forgiven. An idea that once sounded cool and refreshing has not aged well. It is neither Angus nor Cabernet nor Feta. It's more like 1 percent that's been hidden in the back of your refrigerator since mid-October.

Sure, the Big Ten was eligible for AARP membership when the upstart ACC was founded in 1953. Hearty congratulations to the league on turning 113. Now can we try something else?

It's not just that the ACC has won all of the nine previous Challenges; it's that the tally is seldom close. Four of the past five have been landslides. In all, the ACC had won 56 of the 86 individual games in the series entering Monday, a winning percentage that roughly equates to a baseball team with a 105-57 record.

The Big Ten's preseason player of the year is Purdue forward Robbie Hummel, who averaged 11.4 points a game last season. He is joined on the all-conference preseason team by teammate E'Twaun Moore, Manny Harris of Michigan, Raymar Morgan of Michigan State and Marcus Landry of Wisconsin.

Let's just say the marquee isn't about to tumble to the ground with the weight of that quintet. ESPN recently convened its panel of 10 college basketball experts and asked them to name the top 10 players in the land. Of the 100 votes cast, two went to the Big Ten. Morgan got them both.

The ACC only had three players on the ballots, but five of its teams have already won national in-season tournaments: North Carolina (Maui Invitational), Duke (Coaches vs. Cancer), Wake Forest (76 Classic), Miami (Paradise Jam) and Florida State (Las Vegas Invitational). Here's a potentially bad omen for the Big Ten: Michigan State lost in Orlando, Fla., by 18 points to Maryland, which was later obliterated by Gonzaga and Georgetown. The tournament was called the Old Spice Classic. Write your own joke here.

Tonight's Duke-Purdue meeting (9, ESPN) looks like the best game of the 2008 event. It's the Blue Devils' first venture onto an opponent's home floor, and the Boilermakers will no doubt revel in their first chance to play the Devils. In their previous seven Challenge appearances, they've faced Virginia, Clemson and N.C. State twice each and Florida State once.

On Wednesday, Indiana visits Wake Forest in what sounds like an interesting game but probably won't be. Tom Crean will ultimately turn the Hoosiers into winners again, but it won't happen in 2008-09. A squad with nine freshmen lost to Notre Dame by 38 and to St. Joseph's by 26, taking solace only in the games' location: Maui. If you must get slaughtered, let it be in paradise.

The Demon Deacons aren't always pretty -- witness Sunday's 35 percent field-goal shooting against Baylor -- but their emphasis is undeniably proper. The Deacs have attempted only 16 percent of their field goals from 3-point land -- half their rate of last season. Instead, they're getting closer to the hoop and are averaging 31 free-throw attempts a game.

Wednesday night's 9:15 ESPN game, a UNC-Michigan State affair, is intriguing because of its location, Ford Field in Detroit. The home of the NFL's winless Lions will be the site of the Final Four in April 2009, which means the Tar Heels should get themselves acquainted with the surroundings even if they don't approximate the average of 108 points that they've amassed over the past four games.

The Challenge contract has one year to run, and there is no longer a compelling reason to keep it going. It was conceived -- laudably -- as an antidote to monotonous pre-conference schedules, a condition that has been remedied by the growth of national invitationals. Only four years ago, a recent Associated Press story said, the NCAA sanctioned 28 in-season tournaments. That number was up to 82 this season.

The leagues and ESPN should be commended for giving it a shot, but it's time to empty the fridge.

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rob.daniels@news-record.com