Mizzou basketball set to play West Virginia this season

It’s not Kansas, but oh well.

The Missouri Tigers have a pairing for next season’s Big 12/SEC challenge.

Mizzou will battle West Virginia on Saturday, Jan. 25 in Morgantown.

The pairings were revealed Thursday in which all 10 Big 12 teams will take on 10 from the SEC.

Other matchups include: Baylor at Florida; Iowa State at Auburn; Tennessee at Kansas; Kansas State at Alabama; Mississippi State at Oklahoma; Oklahoma State at Texas A&M; TCU at Arkansas; LSU at Texas; and Kentucky at Texas Tech.

Missouri and West Virginia have played against each other four times in their history, and the teams have split the games 2-2. The Mountaineers claimed victory in the team’s latest outing, a 2017 matchup in which West Virginia topped Mizzou 83-79 in the AdvoCare Invitational championship game.

This is the seventh annual event that will take place during a much-anticipated season for the two conferences. Both had representatives in the 2019 Final Four as Texas Tech was the national runner-up and Auburn played in the national semifinal.

All games will be played on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU. It is the fifth-consecutive year in which all games will be played on the same day.

Big 12 won last year’s crossover with a 6-4 record. It also holds a 35-25 overall advantage so far in the series.

In 2018, the SEC won the challenge while the teams tied in 2017. The Big 12 won the first three years the matchups existed.

Most of the Tigers’ 2019-20 schedule still is yet to be announced, but it is known the Tigers will play Xavier in Cincinnati and play in the Hall of Fame Classic to begin the year.