NCAA Basketball: 2019 Big 12/SEC Challenge preview

The matchups for the annual Big 12/SEC Challenge have been announced. Here we preview this year’s field as the SEC looks to win two in a row.

SEC basketball took home last year’s Big 12/SEC Challenge crown for the first time in series history as the challenge enters its sixth year in existence.  The Big 12 will have its hands full once again on Jan. 26, 2019. This year’s matchups are sure to deliver as the Kentucky Wildcats and Kansas Jayhawks headline as the main event.

The SEC took home the challenge title in 2018 with a 6-4 overall record. Kentucky defeated the West Virginia Mountaineers on the road, 83-76, in last year’s matchup while the Vanderbilt Commodores upset the TCU Horned Frogs, 81-78.  Despite being underdogs in many matchups, SEC basketball took home its first Big 12/SEC Challenge, after a 5-5 tie in 2017.

Unfortunately, the Auburn Tigers, Mississippi State Bulldogs, and LSU Tigers will once again miss out on this year’s challenge. While it’s partly due to the Big 12 only having 10 teams, something could be done to at least replace one team or two that didn’t play particularly well in the 2018 challenge.

The Ole Miss Rebels are 0-5 so far and have yet to miss a challenge. The Texas A&M Aggies are 1-3 and have only missed one challenge. Mississippi State has missed out on four challenges.

Still, the 2019 field is sure to deliver another competitive brand of basketball. With a lot of teams losing talent to graduation and the NBA Draft, it will be interesting to see how these games play out. Let’s take a look at the 2019 Big 12/SEC Challenge field.