There are reasons not to be on board with the Big 12/SEC Challenge, set for Saturday. Among them, the interruption of the conference season, some huffiness that the event isn’t played before the holidays like most other challenge series, and, on a local note, no Missouri in the series for the fourth straight year.
But the bottom line is the event works. ESPN and conference officials have done a solid job arranging matchups, aligning Kansas and Kentucky in years it’s not part of the Champions Classic. Saturday’s game is in Lexington, Ky.
“The negatives are it comes at a bad time of the season,” Kansas coach Bill Self said.