Starting next year the Hoosiers and the rest of the Big 10 will play in a tournament with the Big 12 Conference it was announced today.
Before I get to the press release I would like to invite everyone to join Candice and I here on the Hoosier Hype blog for a live chat when IU opens its home season against IUPUI on Sunday at 2pm.
Now here is the release on the tournament from bigten.org:
PARK RIDGE, Ill. - The Big Ten and Big 12 Conferences announced today the formation of an annual inter-conference challenge for women's basketball, which will span at least two years and will begin in the fall of 2010. The series will feature a home-and-home format over the initial two-year agreement, and each of the Big 12's teams will play in each Challenge, while one Big Ten team, Wisconsin, will play two Challenge games each year.
"The Big Ten is excited to participate in this annual challenge with the Big 12 Conference," Big Ten Associate Commissioner Andrea Williams said. "The creation of this new series will provide an opportunity for teams from each league to begin an annual challenge to showcase competitive matchups that our fans from across the country will enjoy."
"We are looking forward to our challenge with the Big Ten Conference," Dru Hancock, Big 12 senior associate commissioner said. "This provides a unique scheduling opportunity for our women's basketball programs against quality opponents. It will also feature exciting matchups for fans to follow over the next two seasons."
The 2010 Challenge will be played Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 4 and 5, with the exception of the Kansas at Wisconsin game, which will be played on Nov. 21. The Big Ten will have seven home games during the 2010 Challenge, which will be referred to as the Big Ten/Big 12 Challenge. In 2011, the Big 12 will have seven home games, and the series will be referred to as the Big 12/Big Ten Challenge.
This Challenge represents the second inter-conference series for the Big Ten, who also participates in an annual challenge with the ACC. It is the first for the Big 12 in which all institutions will participate.
Matchups for the 2010 and 2011 Challenges can be found below. Dates, times and television information will be released at a later date.
2010 BIG TEN/BIG 12 CHALLENGE
Minnesota at Baylor
Illinois at Colorado
Nebraska at Indiana
Kansas State at Iowa
Michigan at Iowa State
Texas at Michigan State
Missouri at Northwestern
Oklahoma at Ohio State
Wisconsin at Oklahoma State
Texas Tech at Penn State
Purdue at Texas A&M
Kansas at Wisconsin
2011 BIG 12/BIG TEN CHALLENGE
Colorado at Illinois
Wisconsin at Kansas
Iowa at Kansas State
Iowa State at Michigan
Baylor at Minnesota
Northwestern at Missouri
Indiana at Nebraska
Ohio State at Oklahoma
Texas A&M at Purdue
Michigan State at Texas
Penn State at Texas Tech
Oklahoma State at Wisconsin
