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USATSI

CBS Sports on Tuesday announced the pairings for the 10th annual CBS Sports Classic for the upcoming 2023-24 men's college basketball season, with Atlanta's State Farm Arena set to host the doubleheader on Saturday, Dec. 16, featuring Ohio State vs. UCLA and North Carolina vs. Kentucky. The festivities will tip at 3 p.m. ET with Ohio State and UCLA tipping things off followed by North Carolina and Kentucky squaring off in the evening after the conclusion of the game between the Buckeyes and Bruins.

State Farm Arena will serve as the seventh different venue to the CBS Sports Classic in a decade's worth of action. It was last held in 2022 at Madison Square Garden, and has most frequently been held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Coverage of the game will be broadcast on CBS and available to stream live on Paramount+.

The CBS Sports Classic has featured UCLA, Ohio State, North Carolina and Kentucky exclusively since the event's inception, but this specific set of matchups was last featured all the way back in 2020. That year, Ohio State knocked off UCLA 77-70, and North Carolina ousted Kentucky 75-63.

The matchup between the Wildcats and the Tar Heels will feature two teams in the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 preseason rankings. The Wildcats, who have the nation's No. 1 incoming recruiting class, recently moved up to No. 16 after the late addition of  Zvonimir Ivisic, a 7-foot-2 center from Croatia. The Tar Heels are ranked No. 22 and return two of the top three scorers - R.J. Davis and Armando Bacot - from last year's squad.  

Only one team over the last decade has a winning record in the CBS Sports Classic -- North Carolina, which is 6-3 -- and it draws arguably the toughest matchup in the series against Kentucky. UK is 4-5 in the series and UCLA is 3-5, with Ohio State entering the 2023 event with a .500 all-time record at 4-4.

Tickets for the 2023 event will go on sale to the general public on Aug. 24, and official fan travel packages -- including game tickets, hotel accommodations and in-arena hospitality -- will also be available beginning August 16. Fans interested in attending this year's event can register to receive direct email alerts regarding ticket news and other events at www.cbssportsclassic.com/tickets.