On Thursday afternoon, ESPN announced that the Florida Gators basketball team will play the Syracuse Orange in the inaugural Big East / SEC Challenge in 2011.
The two teams will meet on Dec. 2 at the Carrier Dome, the home to Syracuse’s basketball team. The game will be broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU.
Florida last met Syracuse on Dec. 10, 2009 in the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Fla. At the time, the two teams were ranked in the Top 10 nationally.
Syracuse won that last meeting 85-73 and leads the all-time series 3-1.
However, the Gators are 4-0 all-time in the Carrier Dome, with all four games coming in NCAA Tournament play.
Florida last played there in the Sweet 16 and the Elite 8 in 2000, where they topped Duke and Oklahoma State.
Before that, the Gators played in the Carrier Dome in the first and second round of the NCAA Tournament in 1987, beating N.C. State and Purdue.
| Big East / SEC Challenge 2011 | |
| Date | Game |
| Thu, Dec 1 | St. John’s at No. 2 Kentucky |
| Georgetown at No. 14 Alabama | |
| Providence at South Carolina | |
| Mississippi at DePaul | |
| Fri, Dec 2 | No. 7 Vanderbilt at No. 9 Louisville |
| No. 12 Florida at No. 4 Syracuse | |
| No. 19 Cincinnati at Georgia | |
| Auburn at Seton Hall | |
| Sat, Dec 3 | Arkansas at No. 6 Connecticut |
| No. 17 Pittsburgh at Tennessee | |
| West Virginia at Mississippi State | |
| LSU at Rutgers | |