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The Mountain West Conference and the Missouri Valley Conference released the schedule for their fourth-annual Mountain West - Missouri Valley Challenge, and the 2012 pairings are quite intriguing across the board. Boise St. gets their first ever matchup against Creighton, while Wichita St. takes on Air Force in the first head-to-head gamesince 1963.
Meanwhile, new men's basketball head coach Larry Eustachy will lead the Colorado St. Rams against the Evansville Aces and Northern Iowa will have to deal with the UNLV Runnin' Rebels. Here is a look at the complete list of pairings:
|
2012 CHALLENGE DATES | Series Records |
|---|---|
| Nov. 17 | San Diego St. Aztecs at Missouri State (Series tied, 2-2; last meeeting 3/14/07) |
| Nov. 28 | Boise St. Broncos at Creighton Bluejays (First meeting) |
| Nov. 28 |
Fresno St. Bulldogs at S. Illinois Salukis (SIU leads, 1-0; only meeting 3/9/66) |
| Dec. 1 | Wichita St. Shockers at Air Force Falcons (WSU leads, 1-0; only meeting 1/26/63) |
| Dec. 1 | Evansville Aces at Colorado St. Rams (First meeting) |
| Dec. 1 | Drake Bulldogs at Nevada Wolfpack (Drake leads, 3-0; last meeting 12/16/69) |
| Dec. 1 | New Mexico Lobos at Indiana State Sycamores (First meeeting) |
| Dec. 4 | Wyoming Cowboys at Illinois St. Red Birds (UW leads, 1-0; only meeting 12/28/85) |
| Dec. 19 | UNI Panthers at UNLV Runnin' Rebels (UNI leads, 0-1; only meeting 3/18/10) |
The MVC won the challenge 5-4 in 2009, the MWC dominated 8-1 in 2010 and the conferences split the series 4-4 in 2011.
For more on CSU and Air Force basketball, visit MWC blog Mountain West Connection and SB Nation Denver.