The Mid-American Conference and Sun Belt Conference announced the first matchups in the inaugural MAC-SBC Challenge Thursday morning.
The MAC-SBC Challenge is a scheduling alliance in the sports of men’s and women’s basketball and will kick off during the opening week of the 2023-24 season, Nov. 8-12, with 12 MAC men’s basketball programs hosting 12 SBC teams, while the 12 MAC women’s basketball programs will visit 12 SBC teams.
For the Falcons, the BGSU men’s basketball team is set to host Arkansas State on Nov. 11 as part of the first round of games.
As for the BGSU women’s basketball team, they will travel to face Texas State on Nov. 11. Each MAC-SBC Challenge game will be carried on an ESPN platform.
“The MAC-Sun Belt Challenge provides us with two quality games for our program,” said men’s basketball head coach Todd Simon.
“With the changing scheduling environment, being able to lock in a home opponent from the Sun Belt is a benefit. It will be exciting to see these games from two very good basketball conferences.”
The second MAC-SBC Challenge contest for each team will take place on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024, with the matchups based on real-time NET rankings and announced in January.
The MAC women and Sun Belt men will host the February matchups. Each MAC and Sun Belt team included in the MAC-SBC Challenge, currently scheduled to take place during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 campaigns, is guaranteed one home and one away game each season.
