The schedule for the fifth annual 2018 Big 12/SECÂ Challenge has officially been set.
Here are the 10 games that’ll make up this season’s challenge:
- Oklahoma at Alabama
- Georgia at Kansas State
- Baylor at Florida
- Texas Tech at South Carolina
- TCU at Vanderbilt
- Oklahoma State at Arkansas
- Kentucky at West Virginia
- Ole Miss at Texas
- Tennessee at Iowa State
- Texas A&M at Kansas
All games will take place on January 27 and be televised on the ESPN family of networks.
The same 10 SEC teams playing in this year’s challenge will also be a part of next year’s challenge, per the official release from the conference.
Lovell’s Analysis:
This is a loaded lineup of games as usual. The conferences finished with a 5-5 split last season, which surprised many college basketball fans due to the inaccurate perception of the SEC.
But the conference won’t sneak up on anyone this season.
I initially tried to rank these games from top to bottom, but it’s impossible to do at this point. We have no idea where these teams could stand by the time we get to next January.
However, it’s not too early to think about how awesome some of these games could be.
You obviously have to start with Kentucky at West Virginia. The Wildcats are officially loaded after Hamidou Diallo withdrew his name from the NBA draft, and the Kentucky backcourt go up against the pressure defense of the Mountaineers will be fun to watch.
There’s also plenty of intrigue in Texas A&M at Kansas. We all know that Bill Self will have the Jayhawks competing for yet another Big 12 title, but they better not overlook a potential sleeping giant in Texas A&M. Billy Kennedy’s team is as deep as it was when it claimed a regular season SEC title a few years ago, and the Aggies will factor into the race again this season.
Ole Miss at Texas should be fun because of the Rebels’ talented guards and the Mohamed Bamba impact on the Longhorns. Oklahoma will be much better than it was a season ago, which makes that trip to Tuscaloosa interesting due to how good Alabama could be with Collin Sexton running the show. Baylor and Florida will feature hard-nosed defense on both sides.
And I’m also intrigued by TCU and Vanderbilt, considering that both Jamie Dixon and Bryce Drew will be looking to build on successful first seasons at their respective schools.
But those are just initial thoughts on a few of the games. The other games will also offer up competitive atmospheres and an overwhelming amount of talent, and we’ll get to those as we move closer to the full schedule release.
These challenge games are one of the highlights of the college basketball season, and given the 2018 Big 12/SEC Challenge schedule, fans are sure to get their money’s worth.