Big East - Big Ten Challenge Adds to Increasingly Intriguing Non-Conference NCAA Basketball Schedule
ByThe NCAA is beefing up its non-conference schedule even more, announcing the Big Ten - Big East and Big-12 - SEC challenges this week.
According to ESPN, conference heads announced the two challenges the same week as CBS announced its CBS Sports Classic, involving UCLA, Kentucky, Ohio State and North Carolina.
The Big-12 - SEC Challenge will take place this year in Dec., from the third through the sixth. The schedule is as follows:
Wednesday, Dec. 3
Auburn at Texas Tech
Thursday, Dec. 4
Arkansas at Iowa State
Baylor at Vanderbilt
LSU at West Virginia
TCU at Ole Miss
Friday, Dec. 5
Florida at Kansas
Missouri at Oklahoma
Texas at Kentucky
Saturday, Dec. 6
Kansas State at Tennessee
Oklahoma State at South Carolina
Mississippi State, Alabama, Georgia and Texas A&M are not scheduled to take part in this year's challenge. The Big-12 won the challenge last year winning seven of the 10 games.
The Big Ten - Big East challenge is not set to take place until the 2015-2016 season and will be held within the first week of the college basketball season. The official schedule has not yet been announced.
"I remember (Big East founder) Dave Gavitt used to say to me, 'We sure know how to end a season with a bang, but we don't do what we should in the beginning," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany told ESPN. "The Big East is relaunching itself. We are, in a way, relaunching ourselves. This is a great way to do that."
At one point not long ago, the Big East was arguably the best basketball conference, housing schools like UConn, Syracuse and Louisville. Along with Rutgers and Cincinatti, UConn and Louisville are helping the AAC gain prominence while Syracuse is helping restock the ACC.
The Big Ten will also maintain its challenge with the ACC when theirs with the Big East begins.
"These match-ups won't always be geographic; we're going to do them based on competitive parity," Big East commissioner Val Ackerman told ESPN. "We'll look at who are expected to be the strongest teams in each league and pair them against each other and sort of tier it, so we get the best match-ups."