Big XII/Pac-10 series schedule

The matchups for the Big XII/Pac-10 challenge have been released:


Nov. 27
-USC at Nebraska

Dec. 2
-Missouri at Oregon
-UCLA at Kansas
-Arizona State at Baylor

Dec. 3
-Kansas State at Washington State

Dec. 4
-Oregon State at Colorado
-California at Iowa State
-Texas Tech at Washington

Dec. 5
-Texas at USC
-Oklahoma at Arizona

Dec. 11
-Washington at Texas A&M

Dec. 21
-Stanford at Oklahoma State

There aren't a lot of overwhelmingly good games here.

Kansas State at Washington State should be entertaining, as the Wildcats are expected to be around the top 10 and the Cougars return a lot of talent. Arizona State at Baylor should also be a good game.

The most interesting matchup could be Missouri at Oregon, as Mike Anderson makes a trip to Eugene, where the Ducks pursued him for a while as a potential replacement for Ernie Kent. there is no way that UCLA can be as bad as they were this year, and they travel to Lawrence to take on fellow blue blood Kansas, who will also be a top 10 team.

That said, I doubt that anyone, except for the writers, bloggers, and most die-hard fans in the midwest and on the west coast, will even know this series is taking place next season.

Why?

Because the games are so spread out.

Part of the reason that this series was put into place was to try and capitalize on the success that the ACC-Big Ten challenge has had, while also guaranteeing every team in both leagues an out of conference game against a power conference team. But the Big XII/Pac-10 series will never, ever reach the level of the ACC-Big Ten challenge if they keep the games so spread out.

The ACC and the Big Ten do it right. The 11 games in that challenge take place over the course of three days and they are shown on the ESPN networks. It drives interest, and people actually care about who wins the challenge. While is carries the same amount of significance as a win in a preseason tournament -- which means basically none -- it does provide some bragging rights. The Big Ten won for the first time this season. I wrote about it here, as did just about every other college basketball media outlet and blog.

In the early part of the college hoops season, when it is difficult to generate interest with football season coming to a close, the ACC-Big Ten challenge provides a reason for casual fans to tune in.

The Big XII/Pac-10 series will never generate that interest under the current format. In the age of the internet, the average attention span of a sports fan is pretty damn short. When the entire NCAA Tournament takes three weeks to play, and every preseason tournament, with the exception the Preseason NIT and the Coaches vs. Cancer, which are played at multiple sites, is finished within four days at an absolute maximum, the Big XII/Pac-10 series takes almost a month to complete?

There is the potential to build some interest in this event, but that will never happen if the series can't be completed within a week.