NCAA Basketball: Rutgers face South Carolina in 2019-20 Toronto matchup
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights and the South Carolina Gamecocks will be heading North in November for a regular season NCAA Basketball matchup.
Jon Rothstein first broke the news in April, but no matchups were announced, and this is the first matchup to be announced so far. Unlike other special NCAA Basketball events, this will not be a tournament style event, but just a one-day event for the select teams that are chosen to play at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. It looks like it will be an interesting combination of teams that will participate in this triple-header. Other conferences like the MAC and Ivy League offer unique matchups we might not get the chance to see otherwise.
Source: The Hall-of-Fame will be holding a one-day preseason event in Toronto on November 16th at Scotiabank Center. Teams will be from the Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC, Ivy League, and MAC. Matchups are TBD.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 11, 2019
It will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools, and neither South Carolina nor Rutgers was very good last season. South Carolina finished the season 16-16 and Rutgers finished 14-17. A win will help legitimize each program’s non-conference schedule for 2019-20.
This will be a homecoming for a player from both South Carolina and Rutgers. Eugene Omoruyi played two hours away from Toronto and will be returning home for a game for the first time since joining Rutgers. A.J. Lawson from South Carolina is also a proud Canadian. Lawson is a Toronto native, and the sophomore guard will also be returning to Toronto for a game for the first time.
Some contract details have been announced for the event. Rutgers will be paid $75,000 to play in this event, and they will receive 75 complimentary tickets in premium seating. If they were to back out, Rutgers would have to pay a $100,000 penalty. No other contract details have been announced for other programs.
For South Carolina, Toronto isn’t the only international city they will play in next season. The Gamecocks will also head to Mexico to play two games. They will take on Wichita State and West Virginia or Northern Iowa in the Cancun Challenge.
Next. Early Big Ten power rankings for 2019-20. dark
Playing games at international locations have taken sports by storm. The MLB and the NFL have both made it an initiative to play games internationally. It looks like the NCAA will be following in their footsteps as they look to expand their coverage and fandom into different countries.