With the news that Wichita State and Xavier have been added, this looks like the schedule. HOME Memphis Wichita State Oakland Belmont ETSU Chattanooga UNC Asheville AWAY Virginia Xavier SEC-Big East Challenge Neutral: 5-Hour ENERGY® Puerto Rico Tip-Off Providence, Oklahoma State, Xavier, North Carolina State, Penn State, Southern Mississippi and Akron
HTML: NC State will be a formidable hurdle. Akron and X will be pretty good, too. Providence and Oklahoma State are capable of beating UT.
Im glad we have one more year on the contract with UTK. Im not sure what our schedule will look like the next two seasons since the Big East still hasnt told anyone how many conference games we will be playing. Ive always liked the basketball series. Its good for our city and both teams. I also like the football game here. It helps Memphis financially and helps UTK by getting to play in front of the Memphis prep talent. Id hate to see it all go to waste.
So excited for UT to be playing X and Virginia. I've been up to X three times and the Cintas Center is top notch... been to Paul Jones Arena at UVa is extremely nice as well.
I'm skeptical of it helping out UT in recruiting at all. I think it appeases UT alumni in Memphis, and that is it. Besides a small financial boost for UM, I don't think it does them any favors either. It feeds in to the stereotype of Memphis being lower tier to UT to get creamed in football with their own stadium filled with orange. I don't mind that stereotype one bit, but it isn't good for Memphis.
I understand what you mean IP. I think we are going to terminate the football game once we get into Big East play. money will no longer be a driving force in keeping the UT game and the alumni can go to Ole Miss or Arkansas and see them if they feel like it. Basketball series is still worth having. Ive never been the type to not want competing teams in recruiting to not ever get into the city like Cal was. I think its a good game. I would like to see us start the series with Arkansas again but that will never happen until they play us a return football game after we beat them. Ole Miss serves no purpose for us and Miss St. is about to go down the shitter too. Vandy wouldnt bring enough fans so it really wouldnt matter. Also, what is the SEC planning to do with the conference bball schedule? I noticed someone said you would be losing the H & H with UK?
SEC is planning to have eight single games, four rotating home-and-homes, and one permanent home-and-home rivalry. Somebody (although I hear Cuonzo fought against this) thinks Vandy is a better permanent rival than Kentucky. As far as I'm concerned, this somebody should be strung up about now
Grown ups are forgetting what makes college athletics fun: old time, historic rivalries. And all of this because of AM and Mizzou. Gross.
In this particular case, just as much (or more) blame could be foisted on Florida and Vanderbilt. Kentucky and Tennessee wanted each other. Cal actually proposed an interesting idea. Go Big East style and do the scheduling based on projected strength of individual teams. Top teams play each other twice (and get more chances at big wins), mid-tier teams play each other twice (lots of bubble team vs bubble team), and bottom teams play each other twice (so they actually have a chance to win one or two). Everybody plays the rest of the league once. While I still want Kentucky protected, this could work okay.
