2018 BIG 12/SEC CHALLENGE (JANUARY 27, 2018)

Oklahoma at Alabama

Georgia at Kansas State

Baylor at Florida

Texas Tech at South Carolina

TCU at Vanderbilt

Oklahoma State at Arkansas

Kentucky at West Virginia

Ole Miss at Texas

Tennessee at Iowa State

Texas A&M at Kansas

Highlighted by Texas A&M's visit to historic Allen Fieldhouse where the Aggies will take on defending Big 12 Champion Kansas, the match-ups for the fifth annual Big 12/SEC Challenge were revealed Thursday as the two premier college basketball conferences will face off on January 27, 2018."Playing Kansas inside Phog Allen Fieldhouse is a great opportunity to compete against one of the premier basketball programs in the country. What Bill Self has done, winning 13 consecutive conference titles, adds to the legacy of KU basketball," Texas A&M head coachsaid. "The fact that ESPN has paired us against a power like Kansas says a lot about the growth of our program and the talent we have coming back next season. We look forward to the challenge."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 participate in the 2018 Challenge will be a part of the 2019 event.Eleven participating teams earned NCAA Tournament berths in 2017 with six of the teams advancing to at least the Sweet 16 of the tournament. Additionally, 24 of the ESPN.com Top 100 recruits have signed with SEC schools and nine schools have top 40 recruiting classes.This will be the third 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 2018 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.--