Texas could face Calipari, Arkansas on regular basis

Arkansas made it official Wednesday when it announced the hiring of former Kentucky coach John Calipari as its new men’s basketball coach. Could Texas meet up with Calipari and renew an old rivalry with the Razorbacks on a regular basis when the Longhorns join the SEC next season?

Here’s what we know about the SEC’s basketball schedule:

In the current 14-team SEC, teams play 18 conference games with a schedule that features three permanent opponents played on a home-and-home basis each season for six games. Each team then has two additional homeand-home series each season against SEC opponents that rotate from year to year for another four games. Each team also plays the eight remaining conference opponents once each season.

So how will next season’s SEC schedule look since the additions of Texas and Oklahoma expand the conference to 16 teams? Based on statements from the SEC over this past season, the conference will retain an 18-game conference schedule — with several caveats:

Each team will have two permanent opponents to play twice per season, home and away.

Each team will have a third conference opponent that will rotate each season, home and away.

Each team will have six home games and six road games against the remaining 12 teams in the conference.

So which teams will stick with Texas as its two permanent opponents? Blood rival Texas A&M will almost certainly be one considering its proximity and its history with UT that stretches back more than a century. Oklahoma seems like the logical second opponent, based on the Sooners’ own history with the Longhorns.

But don’t rule out Arkansas and Calipari. The Razorbacks and Texas have their own rivalry that stretches back to 1924, according to records compiled by HogStats.com. Arkansas leads the series 87-68, which includes wins in the Southwest Conference tournament title games in 1989 and 1991 during a high-energy era when Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson and Texas’ Tom Penders turned each program into national contenders.

JORDAN PRATHER/USA TODAY Basketball coach John Calipari moved cross-conference from Kentucky to Arkansas on Wednesday.