TheSEC–Big East Challenge was an in-seasonNCAA Division I men'scollege basketball series, matching up teams from theSoutheastern Conference and the originalBig East Conference. The event, which was held each season from 2007 to 2012, took place in early December each year, before the start of conference play.

The original six-year contract for the series expired in 2013 and was not renewed. This was likely an effect of the2010–13 Big East Conference realignment, which resulted in the members of the original Big East splitting up into the football-sponsoringAmerican Athletic Conference (marketed as "The American" and the legal successor to the original Big East) and a new, non-footballBig East Conference in the summer of 2013.^[1] The SEC proceeded to establish a new series with theBig 12 Conference called theBig 12/SEC Challenge.^[2]

Initially, each annual series included four games featuring four teams from each conference. The games were held as two double-headers in two different, typically off-campus, sites. Though most of the sites were not home arenas for the teams featured in the event, many were in the same cities as one of the participants.Madison Square Garden in New York City hosted a double-header in 2009 that featured theSt. John's Red Storm, who use the Garden as their home arena for some games. In 2010, two games were held atFreedom Hall inLouisville, Kentucky, which served as theLouisville Cardinals' home arena until theKFC Yum! Center opened for the 2010–11 season. Other venues were occasional home venues for invitational participants.Villanova occasionally plays at theWells Fargo Center inPhiladelphia, where they participated in the first year of the Invitational in 2007 (when the venue was known as Wachovia Center).Pittsburgh occasionally hosts games in theConsol Energy Center since it opened in 2010, where they played in the invitational in December of that year.

Starting with the 2011–12 season, the format was changed to allow every SEC team to participate along with an equal number of Big East teams. This format featured 12 games over three days beginning on the Thursday after Thanksgiving of each year. The locations of the games were also changed; they were played at home campus sites with each conference hosting six games a year.

For the 2012 challenge, the SEC'snew membersMissouri andTexas A&M did not participate, while the departure ofWest Virginia from the Big East before the 2012–2013 season meant that only three Big East teams were excluded instead of four.

In the inaugural series in 2007, the Big East won three games to the SEC's one. The two conferences tied, with each team winning two games, in 2008 and 2009. In the 2010 series, the SEC won for the first time, three games to one. In the 2011 series, the first year with 12 games, the Big East won eight games to four. In 2012, the Big East won nine games to three.

• College men's basketball competitions in the United States
• Big East Conference men's basketball
• Southeastern Conference men's basketball
• Recurring sporting events established in 2007
• 2007 establishments in the United States
• 2013 disestablishments in the United States

• CS1 errors: archive-url
• CS1 maint: url-status
• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from July 2024
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata