Historically college basketball has struggled to secure marquee early season matchups. Competing against college football and the NFL means Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday are accounted for by many sports viewers, and top 25 caliber programs aren’t exactly clamoring to play challenging games early in the season on a Tuesday or Wednesday.
However, this season already delivered four ranked-on-ranked matchups in the first week of the season, including two featuring the Baylor Bears – who lost to Gonzaga and bounced back with a win over Arkansas – as well as epic matchups between the North Carolina Tar Heels and Kansas Jayhawks and the Auburn Tigers and Houston Cougars.
Week 2 will have more great games as well, including the Champions Classic which always features four teams: Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, and Michigan State, playing each other in Atlanta.
Those two games are must watch early season matchups, while three top 15 ranked teams are each going on the road to take on marquee Big Ten opponents this week as well – rounding out our five biggest games to watch ahead of Feast Week and the epic slate of college hoops games in Hawaii, the Bahamas, and Las Vegas: