Tennessee basketball rematch with Texas in SEC/Big 12 challenge more about headlines than what makes sense

If next year’s SEC/Big 12 Challenge was going to be based on a combination of last year’s success and projected success this year, Tennessee basketball would be meant to face either the Kansas Jayhawks or the Baylor Bears. Instead, they have the same opponent as last year.

The slate for the 2023 challenge was released Thursday, and for the second straight year, the Vols are playing the Texas Longhorns. They get Texas at home this year after losing to Chris Beard’s team by one on the road thanks to a bad call last year.

Make no mistake, this rematch is solely about Rick Barnes, who coached Texas for 17 years before taking over Tennessee basketball. The headline of Barnes facing his former program, and potentially a battle of UTs who wear orange, was prioritized over what makes sense.

Texas last year finished fourth in the Big 12 and lost in the first round of the conference tournament. Now, like the Vols they were eliminated in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, but those two other things don’t make them the best candidate to face Rocky Top next year.

After all, the Vols finished second in the SEC and they won the SEC Tournament. It’s pretty clear that they should face the Baylor Bears at that point, who finished second in the Big 12 and, just like the two UT schools, lost in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32.

If you weren’t going to put them against Baylor, then they should play the defending national champion Jayhawks. After all Bill Self’s team won the Big 12 Tournament and the Big 12 regular season, so it makes sense that they’d either face the Vols or Auburn Tigers.

Instead, once again, the leagues put John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats up against Kansas. Yes, they went for the UK team that lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, finished third in the SEC and didn’t even reach the SEC Tournament Championship game.

Again, it was all about headlines and having the blue bloods face each other. That’s not what this challenge should be about. You could make the case that it’s about expectations for this year, but Texas, Baylor, Kansas and Tennessee basketball all have relatively similar expectations this year.

In fact, Joe Lunardi of ESPN’s most recent bracketology projections for 2023 have the Vols as a No. 3 seed and the other three schools as No. 2 seeds. Kentucky is a No. 1 seed, but based on this breakdown, they should be probably playing Texas.

Speaking of all these teams, you could throw in the Texas Tech Red Raiders, who did face the Vols last year and actually finished ahead of the Longhorns in the Big 12. They don’t have the same expectations this year, but they make more sense as a foe.

Overall, though, Baylor or Kansas should be the matchup for the Vols. Instead, the Arkansas Razorbacks drew Baylor, which is totally based on expectations for this year, and again, that ignores the success of the teams last year.

Combining all factors, Tennessee basketball should be facing Kansas, the Auburn Tigers should be facing Baylor, Arkansas should be facing Texas and Kentucky should be facing Texas Tech. Auburn, though, drew the West Virginia Mountaineers, which is actually ridiculous on its own. The Vols, though, shouldn’t be playing Texas again.