ACC announces Pitt and Virginia as Maryland's 'primary partners' in 2015

The Pittsburgh Panthers and Virginia Cavaliers were announced as the Maryland Terrapins' future Atlantic Coast Conference "primary partners" in men's basketball, the league made official Wednesday. The schedule change will annually pit the Terps' against the Panthers and Cavaliers at least twice during the regular season. The change will not be made until 2015, when Pitt, the Syracuse Orange and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish join the conference.

For Maryland hoops fans, this will be a big change as this means there will be fewer regular-season meetings with Duke Blue Devils and other ACC rivals. On occasion there will be two meetings between the two schools, but not every season.

The ACC also announced changes to the league's tournament. When the new members enter, there will be three games on Wednesday, four games on Thursday and Friday, semifinals on Saturday and the Championship Game on Sunday.

Meanwhile, football will retain its eight-game conference schedule.

A complete list of the ACC playing partners can be found here.