Big 12-Big East Battle Extended For Two Years
Since the 2019-2020 season, the Big 12 Conference and Big East conferences have been participating in a scheduling alliance in an effort to enhance their basketball non-conference schedules, something that has become increasingly important to the selection committee each year when it comes to at-large berths and tournament seeding.
But that agreement was set to expire after this season's slate, in which the Kansas Jayhawks host the Seton Hall Pirates on December 1st. Instead, the two conferences announced today that the series will not only be extended for two additional seasons, but that the number of games will increase from 10 to 11.
The Battle has had a short history, with the Big East winning the first iteration 8-2 in 2019 before the last two have ended in ties, 3-3 in 2020 and 5-5 in 2021. Kansas lost the first matchup against Villanova on the road in a 56-55 thriller. They then returned the favor the next season, beating Creighton at home in a matchup of Top 10 teams by a score of 73-72. And last season, the Jayhawks destroyed St. John's on the road 95-75 on their way to a national championship.
Ultimately, I'm excited to see this series continue, even if I would like to see a few changes. The main drawback to the event is that it is typically spread out over the course of at least a week. That gives it less of a feel of an interconference event, and more as just a convenient scheduling alliance that creates some interesting games.
But it's those games that make it so worthwhile. Two of the games for the Jayhawks have been instant classics, and this year's matchup has the possibility of being one as well. Plus, the rest of the matchups have seen only a limited number of repeated matchups, which isn't something that we can say about the also-fantastic Big 12-SEC Challenge.
So ultimately, while the Battle may never rise to the level of a coherent event, it is still a great scheduling opportunity that I am glad isn't going away.
Join the discussion! Come talk about this or any of our articles on the Blue Wing Rising Discord Server.
Follow Blue Wings Rising on Twitter.
Listen to the official podcast of Blue Wings Rising: The Rock Chalk Podcast.
