West Virginia Men’s Basketball to Host Florida in Big 12/SEC Challenge on Jan. 30, 2021

Even though the majority of West Virginia men’s basketball’s non-conference schedule has been scrapped this year, the Big 12/SEC Challenge will still feature as a highlight of the season. Today, the conference announced that West Virginia will host Florida on Jan. 30, 2021, at the WVU Coliseum, in Morgantown. This will be the second meeting between these two teams in the event.

https://twitter.com/WVUhoops/status/1318922493688729601?s=20

Exact times and broadcast channel have not been released, but the event will showcase on ESPN throughout the day on January 30.

The Gators are 6-3 in the all-time series. Florida downed then-No. 9 West Virginia 88-71 in 2016, at the O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Florida, in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. They won the most recent matchup 66-56, in Madison Square Garden, on Dec. 4, 2018.

WVU has not fared well in this cross-conference battle. The Mountaineers are just 2-5, with wins over Texas A&M (2017) and Missouri (2020). Both of WVU’s wins were at the Coliseum.

Florida is 4-3 in the Challenge, having never missed a year (the SEC only enters 10 of its 14 teams into the event).

The Big 12 has claimed the trophy in four of the seven years, the SEC has won once, and the challenge has ended in a tie twice. Overall, Big 12 teams are 40-30 in the event.

The full lineup for the 2021 Big 12/SEC Challenge is:

Auburn at Baylor

Iowa State at Mississippi State

Kansas at Tennessee

Texas A&M at Kansas State

Alabama at Oklahoma

Arkansas at Oklahoma State

TCU at Missouri

Texas at Kentucky

Texas Tech at LSU

Florida at West Virginia

All games will be played on January 30 and broadcast on an ESPN network.