May 24, 2018
Vanderbilt men’s basketball will once again be a participant in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge in 2019 when the Commodores take on Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma on January 26. The start time and network designation will be announced at a later date.
The Commodores and Sooners will meet for the third time overall and for the second time on Oklahoma’s home floor. Vanderbilt leads the series, 2-0, with wins coming on December 10, 1955 at Memorial Gym (78-69) and on March 16, 1994 in a NIT first-round matchup in Norman (W, 77-67).
Vanderbilt has won their last two games in the challenge, with wins coming over Iowa State in 2017 and TCU in 2018. All time in the event, Vanderbilt owns a record of 2-3.
All 10 of the Big 12’s teams and 10 of the SEC’s 14 member institutions will participate in this year’s event. Each of the 10 SEC teams that participated in the 2018 Challenge are a part of the 2019 event.
The SEC is coming off a 6-4 win in the Big 12/SEC Challenge after a 5-5 tie in 2017.
A record eight SEC teams participated in the 2018 NCAA Tournament and excitement for the 2019 season is building with 19 of ESPN.com’s Top 100 recruits having signed with SEC schools. In all, the SEC boasts six of ESPN.com’s Top 25 in-coming recruiting classes.
This will be the fourth year that a bye in the league schedule for participating teams was created to accommodate the single-day format. The four SEC teams not participating will play each other in conference games the same day. The first two years of the challenge were played over several days in November and December but the 2019 event will be consolidated to one single day in January.
Four of the 10 games will be televised on ESPN, four on ESPN2 and two games will air on ESPNU. All 10 games will also be available on the ESPN app. ESPN’s College GameDay Covered by State Farm – the Saturday roadshow that discusses the top storylines of the college basketball season – will originate from one of the Challenge games.
“The Big 12/SEC Challenge is a unique opportunity to showcase our basketball programs. Playing the event on a single-date in January puts our programs in the college basketball spotlight,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said.
Start times and network designations will be announced at a later date.
2019 SEC/Big 12 Challenge (January 26, 2019):
Alabama at Baylor
Arkansas at Texas Tech
Florida at TCU
Texas at Georgia
Kansas at Kentucky
Iowa State at Ole Miss
South Carolina at Oklahoma State
West Virginia at Tennessee
Kansas State at Texas A&M
Vanderbilt at Oklahoma
