FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas will get a rematch with Baylor in this season’s Big 12/SEC Challenge, the leagues announced Thursday.
The former Southwest Conference rivals last met in the 2021 NCAA Tournament, where the Bears beat the Razorbacks in the Elite Eight on their way to winning the national championship.
This matchup will take place in Waco, Texas, on Jan. 28, 2023, when the two leagues pause conference play for their annual showdown.
Although Arkansas leads the all-time series 96-48, Baylor has won the last two matchups. That includes the aforementioned meeting two years ago, when the Razorbacks gave the Bears arguably their toughest test in the Big Dance.
Baylor has become a college basketball power in recent years. In addition to winning the national title in 2021, the Bears have made seven of the last eight NCAA Tournaments and were a 1 seed this past season. They made the Elite Eight in 2010 and 2012, plus the Sweet 16 in 2014 and 2017.
Their home court is the Ferrell Center, a 10,284-seat arena that opened in the late-1980s. Arkansas played there three times, posting a 2-1 record, before leaving the SWC and joining the SEC.
Coming off back-to-back appearances in the Elite Eight, the Razorbacks are widely expected to be even better in 2022-23. With a nearly completely rebuilt roster that features three McDonald’s All-Americans and an impressive transfer haul, many way-too-early polls have them inside the top 10.
Right there alongside Arkansas is Baylor, which returns the likes of Adam Flagler and LJ Cryer while adding five-star freshman Keyonte George. In fact, the two schools are No. 6 and No. 7, respectively, in the latest preseason rankings by CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish.
In the 2022 Big 12/SEC Challenge, Arkansas beat West Virginia inside Bud Walton Arena, while Baylor traveled to Alabama and suffered one of its seven losses of the season.
Those were two of six victories by the SEC last year, helping the SEC win the Big 12/SEC Challenge for a second straight season. In the first seven years of the event, the SEC won just once and tied twice.
Here’s a complete list of the 2022-23 matchups…
Alabama at Oklahoma
Arkansas at Baylor
Auburn at West Virginia
Florida at Kansas State
Kansas at Kentucky
Texas Tech at LSU
Ole Miss at Oklahoma State
TCU at Mississippi State
Iowa State at Missouri
Texas at Tennessee
