I know conference challenges have been a long-standing institution in college basketball, but the SEC/Big 12 Challenge has always struck me as one of the odder matchups. I put together some summary tables to to try and see any trends:





1. I forgot how in the first two years the games weren't all played on the same date; some were played at neutral sites.
2. The series is more even that I thought; would have assumed the gap was way bigger than 48-41.
3. I know that both conferences want to create the best matchups, but it hardly seems fair that in 10 years Florida and Kentucky have participated every year while Georgia and South Carolina have only participated 4 times each.
4. Seeing it all laid out it's even more of a shame that Missouri has never been allowed to play one of the Kansas teams and A&M has never been allowed to play one of the Texas teams.

zpj0001 said:

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I know conference challenges have been a long-standing institution in college basketball, but the SEC/Big 12 Challenge has always struck me as one of the odder matchups. I put together some summary tables to to try and see any trends:





1. I forgot how in the first two years the games weren't all played on the same date; some were played at neutral sites.
2. The series is more even that I thought; would have assumed the gap was way bigger than 48-41.
3. I know that both conferences want to create the best matchups, but it hardly seems fair that in 10 years Florida and Kentucky have participated every year while Georgia and South Carolina have only participated 4 times each.
4. Seeing it all laid out it's even more of a shame that Missouri has never been allowed to play one of the Kansas teams and A&M has never been allowed to play one of the Texas teams.

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In regards to #3, SEC includes only the top 10 teams in the standings. Pretty simple really. That's why we've been out the last 2 years.

Mikeyshooter said:

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zpj0001 said:

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I know conference challenges have been a long-standing institution in college basketball, but the SEC/Big 12 Challenge has always struck me as one of the odder matchups. I put together some summary tables to to try and see any trends:





1. I forgot how in the first two years the games weren't all played on the same date; some were played at neutral sites.
2. The series is more even that I thought; would have assumed the gap was way bigger than 48-41.
3. I know that both conferences want to create the best matchups, but it hardly seems fair that in 10 years Florida and Kentucky have participated every year while Georgia and South Carolina have only participated 4 times each.
4. Seeing it all laid out it's even more of a shame that Missouri has never been allowed to play one of the Kansas teams and A&M has never been allowed to play one of the Texas teams.

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In regards to #3, SEC includes only the top 10 teams in the standings. Pretty simple really. That's why we've been out the last 2 years.

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Oh, I had always assumed there was a "selection" aspect to it so that the TV people could have their say. Is it total record or conference standing that determines who from the SEC is out?

Mikeyshooter said:

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zpj0001 said:

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I know conference challenges have been a long-standing institution in college basketball, but the SEC/Big 12 Challenge has always struck me as one of the odder matchups. I put together some summary tables to to try and see any trends:





1. I forgot how in the first two years the games weren't all played on the same date; some were played at neutral sites.
2. The series is more even that I thought; would have assumed the gap was way bigger than 48-41.
3. I know that both conferences want to create the best matchups, but it hardly seems fair that in 10 years Florida and Kentucky have participated every year while Georgia and South Carolina have only participated 4 times each.
4. Seeing it all laid out it's even more of a shame that Missouri has never been allowed to play one of the Kansas teams and A&M has never been allowed to play one of the Texas teams.

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In regards to #3, SEC includes only the top 10 teams in the standings. Pretty simple really. That's why we've been out the last 2 years.

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Last year we finished tied for 6th and made the tournament final. Why are we out this year?

t - cam said:

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Mikeyshooter said:

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zpj0001 said:

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I know conference challenges have been a long-standing institution in college basketball, but the SEC/Big 12 Challenge has always struck me as one of the odder matchups. I put together some summary tables to to try and see any trends:





1. I forgot how in the first two years the games weren't all played on the same date; some were played at neutral sites.
2. The series is more even that I thought; would have assumed the gap was way bigger than 48-41.
3. I know that both conferences want to create the best matchups, but it hardly seems fair that in 10 years Florida and Kentucky have participated every year while Georgia and South Carolina have only participated 4 times each.
4. Seeing it all laid out it's even more of a shame that Missouri has never been allowed to play one of the Kansas teams and A&M has never been allowed to play one of the Texas teams.

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In regards to #3, SEC includes only the top 10 teams in the standings. Pretty simple really. That's why we've been out the last 2 years.

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Last year we finished tied for 6th and made the tournament final. Why are we out this year?

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True, last season we were tied for 6th in conference (8th after the tie-break) and we had the 6th best regular season record. We weren't in the bottom 4 by any metric. There has to be a selection element from the conference office(s).

I think it's on a two year selection cycle, but that wasn't in place the first couple years

bobinator said:

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I think it's on a two year selection cycle, but that wasn't in place the first couple years

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this. I remember seeing this: selections are doen on a 2 year cycle.

Isn't this challenge coming to an end soon?

Yeah, this is it.

I'll miss it so much. Getting run off the floor by KSU.

Method Man said:

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I'll miss it so much. Getting run off the floor by KSU.

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Whispers: ...we beat K State both times we played them...

I never had much interest in this for two reasons:

• I never bought into the puffed up rah-rah "SEC is the best conference blah blah blah BDF blah blah blah" nonsense.
• We never played any of the teams I wanted to play, with the exception of one game against Oklahoma State.

I'd rather see us play one of Texas, Tech, Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State each season as part of our non-conference schedule (at least until OU and Texas join the SEC), but we know the likelihood of that is pretty small. I'm looking forward to the start of the SEC-ACC challenge next season.

I liked it as a college basketball fan, our matchups were lame.

Looking forward to playing Boston College every year or whatever

Yeah, it was a really fun weekend of basketball and the timing was genius throwing it into the middle of the season. Basically stole the spotlight for a weekend.

bobinator said:

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I liked it as a college basketball fan, our matchups were lame.

Looking forward to playing Boston College every year or whatever

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Yeah, that's probably how it will fall for us.

Lol. Maybe it's TCU. I don't remember who we played it's been so long

bobinator said:

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I liked it as a college basketball fan, our matchups were lame.

Looking forward to playing Boston College every year or whatever

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Time to start the hate matches between Rutgers and the Aggies

The ACC / Big Ten Challenge consistently was watchable. Our team isn't watchable half the time yet I still watch it. We finally appear to be on an upward swing with the only explanation being, again, lucky transfer grabs. Of course the coaching finally is resulting in much more effective defense and the turnovers and transition offense improves watchability!

Until we are consistent being a fan is a labor of love. Being a fan should not be laborious…

I don't miss much about being in the Big 12, but Big 12 basketball was fantastic. Those years we were good under BCG and Turgeon were a ton of fun. Even when A&M was bad, watching the rest of the league was pretty cool. Great atmosphere at games and especially at the Big 12 tourney.

But outside of that, everything else is better in the new league.