Texas A&M Basketball: Aggies left out of 2022 SEC/Big 12 Challenge

The Texas A&M Basketball team did not have a very memorable season in 2020-21. Buzz Williams’ team finished with a losing record, winning just eight games on the season and two in conference.

This year, the TAMU Basketball team will be left out of the 2022 SEC/Big 12 Challenge. In a way, this feels like the basketball gods punishing the Aggies for having such a poor season. That said, this is far from the truth.

The Aggie basketball team is not being punished. Instead, they’re caught in an unfortunate situation that stems from the fact that the SEC and Big 12 do not have an equal amount of teams. The SEC has 14 teams, while the Big 12 has 10. Confusing, I know.

In the past few seasons, the Aggies hold a 3-4 record in the challenge, holding their own against a conference that can be extremely tough. Other teams that will also be left out this year include Vanderbilt, South Carolina, and Georgia. These teams will have other plans during the challenge.

Here is a full list of the competition in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, including a few high-profile clashes:

• Baylor @ Alabama
• West Virginia @ Arkansas
• Oklahoma @ Auburn
• Oklahoma State @ Florida
• Kentucky @ Kansas

• LSU @ TCU
• Kansas State @ Ole Miss
• Mississippi State @ Texas Tech
• Missouri @ Iowa State
• Tennessee @ Texas

Realistically, this may be a good year for the Texas A&M Basketball team to miss out on the competition as the Aggies will have an almost entirely new-look squad rolling out for the 2021-22 season.

The Texas A&M Basketball team will miss multiple seasons of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge

To add insult to injury, the Aggies will also miss the SEC/Big 12 Challenge for 2022-23, as the teams that play in this year’s competition will be the same that perform in next year’s challenge. Maybe Buzz Williams’ squad will bounce back by the time they make a return performance in 2024.

Fortunately for the Aggies, they won’t miss out on any basketball, as they’ll have intra-conference games while the rest of the teams are playing out-of-conference games.

This may help Texas A&M assimilate their new players onto the roster and develop chemistry before being thrown into a rough schedule. During this time, fans will get their first look at Duke transfer Henry Coleman and 5-star freshman Manny Obaseki.