The Georgia men’s basketball team is set to face Kansas State in in Manhattan, KS, on Saturday, January 27, next season as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge. The 10 matchups for the fifth-annual event were announced on Thursday.

 
“I have great respect for the history and tradition of Kansas State,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “Coach Weber has done a terrific job and his teams are always very tough to compete against. Obviously, as a Kansas native, it is always special to play near my family. It will be a great challenge for our team.”
 
 
The matchup between the Bulldogs and Wildcats will be the third in a four-season span and the fourth overall. The road team won both ends of a home-and-home series contested in 2014-15 (UGA won 50-46 in Manhattan) and 2015-16 (K-State won 68-66 in Athens). Georgia and Kansas State also met in the first round of the 1987 NCAA Tournament, with the Wildcats securing an 82-79 victory in overtime.
 
 
All 10 of the Big 12’s teams and 10 of the SEC’s 14 member institutions will participate in this year’s event. Each of the 10 SEC teams that participate in the 2018 Challenge will be a part of the 2019 event.
 
 
This will be the third year that a bye in the SEC’s league schedule for participating teams was created to accommodate the single‐day format. The four SEC teams not participating will play each other in conference games the same day. The first two years of the challenge were played over several days in November and December.
 
 
Start times and network designations will be announced at a later date. The other nine matchups include Oklahoma at Alabama, Baylor at Florida, Texas Tech at South Carolina, TCU at Vanderbilt, Oklahoma State at Arkansas, Kentucky at West Virginia, Ole Miss at Texas, Tennessee at Iowa State and Texas A&M at Kansas.
 
 
Four of the 10 games will be televised on ESPN, four on ESPN2 and two games will air on ESPNU. All 10 games will also be available on the ESPN app. ESPN’s College GameDay Covered by State Farm – the Saturday roadshow that discusses the top storylines of the college basketball season – will originate from one of the Challenge games.
 
 
“The Big 12/SEC Challenge is a unique opportunity to showcase our basketball programs. Playing the event on a single date in January puts our programs in the college basketball spotlight,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said.
 
 
Last year, the two league’s split the 10 matchups of the challenge, including Georgia’s victory over Texas at Stegeman Coliseum.