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LSU will host the Texas Tech Red Raiders on January 30 as part of the eighth annual Big 12-SEC challenge, the SEC, Big 12 and ESPN jointly announced Wednesday morning.
The conferences played to a 5-5 draw in last season’s Big 12-SEC Challenge. Last year LSU did its part for the SEC, defeating Texas in Austin 69-67, while Texas Tech lost at home to Kentucky in overtime.
Texas Tech projects to be an awesome matchup. The Red Raiders made the Elite Eight in both 2018 and 2019, and were the national runners up in 2019. LSU and Tech have played seven times, with the Red Raiders holding a 4-3 advantage. The last time the two met was in the 2017 SEC-Big 12 Challenge, with Texas Tech winning 77-64 in Lubbock.
LSU is 2-2 when participating in the Big 12-SEC Challenge. In addition to last season’s win over Texas, LSU also upset No. 16 West Virginia in Morgantown back in 2015; the Tigers also lost to No. 1 Oklahoma in Baton Rouge in 2016.
The rest of the Big 12-SEC Challenge matchups are as follows. Tipoff times have yet to be announced:
- Alabama at Oklahoma
- Arkansas at Oklahoma State
- Auburn at Baylor
- Florida at West Virginia
- Texas at Kentucky
- Iowa State at Mississippi State
- TCU at Missouri
- Kansas at Tennessee
- Texas A&M at Kansas State
In other news, LSU will also host Virginia Commonwealth as part of a home-and-home clause that VCU put in Will Wade’s contract while he was coaching the Rams. VCU started doing this when Jeff Capel left the Rams to take the head job at Oklahoma in 2006. Capel was contractually obligated to play VCU in a home-and-home in the event he left, and ever since VCU has inserted the very same clause in Anthony Grant, Shaka Smart and Wade’s contracts.
LSU and VCU will play December 22. The game was originally scheduled for November 29, but the date was changed when the NCAA pushed the start of the college basketball season to November 25.
With the VCU game set, we know three of the four non-conference games LSU will play inside the PMAC. LSU will host Louisiana Tech December 6, VCU the 22 and Texas Tech January 30. The fourth game is scheduled for December 19 but the opponent has not yet been announced.