Pros and cons of the Big 12/SEC Challenge

The Big 12/SEC Challenge provided compelling basketball, upsets and blowouts, or what might be expected from 10 arranged games. Mostly, coaches aren’t in favor of playing series at midseason, and their opinions didn’t change in the aftermath.

Still the Challenge accomplished this: It felt like a big deal.

The day’s focus was on the two leagues, and the event is likely to be viewed positively when it’s discussed in offseason meetings with ESPN and conferences.

With the line drawn down the middle of a legal pad, here are some pros and cons from the weekend that will be part of the next planning meeting.

PROS

Marquee games lived up to the hype

Late-game heroics lifted top-ranked Oklahoma past feisty LSU in a battle between perhaps the two leading candidates for national player of the year, the Sooners’ Buddy Hield and the Tigers’ Ben Simmons.

Nobody knew the matchup would provide that type of attraction when it was scheduled, but what fortune that it did.

Hield won the individual battle with 32 points, making seven of eight threes in the second half, with Simmons finishing with 14 points, nine rebounds, five assists and a reverse flush on a baseline drive that topped the game’s highlight package.

Kansas’ overtime victory over Kentucky presented the rare battle between storied programs played on a home floor. Their last four meetings have been in the NCAA Tournament or Champions Classic.

The game brought out the best in the Jayhawks’ Wayne Selden, with a career-best 33 points, and Wildcats guard Tyler Ulis, unstoppable at times with 26 points and eight assists while playing all 45 minutes.

By the polls, Texas A&M-Iowa State was the strongest matchup and was a tug-of-war until the final 4 minutes when the fifth-ranked Aggies pulled away from the No. 14 Cyclones, looking to beat a top-five team for the third time in two weeks.

Fans bought in

The crowd of 12,473 at College Station, Texas, was the largest to view a nonconference game in school history.

Allen Fieldhouse was its usual ear-splitting self with a few bonuses, like the kid dressed as James Naismith, complete with a peach basket, Marlins Man and Royals outfielder Alex Gordon (in a Kansas T-shirt to the horror of Nebraska fans) in attendance.

Manhattan, Gainesville and Baton Rouge all appeared juiced for the occasion.

Winners boosted

The attention focused on the weekend heightened the games’ importance probably beyond what hindsight probably will prove. As Kansas State-Mississippi, Texas-Vanderbilt, TCU-Tennessee approached, they started to feel like pressure games.

Kansas State’s Bruce Weber emphasized the Mississippi game. “The last couple of weeks we talked about things we need to get accomplished to win the SEC Challenge,” he said.

CONS

Conference interruptus

By landing in the midway point of the conference schedule, teams played an additional game against a strong opponent. The season wasn’t longer, but league play started earlier to accommodate the Challenge.

“Our league is a grind, and it became a 19-game schedule instead of an 18-game schedule,” Kansas coach Bill Self said.

Undercard feeling

Weber on his weekly radio show expressed a concern on the disparity of promotion. Games involving ranked teams were getting plenty of run. The others, not so much. All Big 12 programs and 10 of the 14 in the SEC have skin in the game, and from a resume-improving standpoint, the stakes are higher for the middle to bottom half teams.

Beware of first-year format success

This was the third year of the Challenge and the first in this format — 10 games on one day after conference play had commenced. The day was a success, but it also got lucky with top individuals, blue blood programs and ranked teams facing off.

I’m reminded of the College Football Playoff, reviewed as a rousing success in the first year, and where-was-the-audience in the second.

But undoubtedly, there will be momentum for the event and its format for next season. And the pre-Super Bowl weekend could prove to be the ideal landing spot to maximize interest.

One program would like to see the event continue in any format. TCU, which has finished ninth or 10th since joining the Big 12 in 2012, improved to 3-0 against the SEC with its victory over Tennessee.

This story was originally published January 31, 2016 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Pros and cons of the Big 12/SEC Challenge."