Florida Basketball Schedule Adds Date With Marquette For Sweet Sixteen Rematch In 2012 SEC-Big East Challenge

Coming off a year in which Florida traveled to Syracuse to play one of the early season's biggest games in the 2011 SEC-Big East Challenge, Gators fans were hoping for a big name at home in Gainesville for the 2012 SEC-Big East Challenge, and none was bigger than Louisville: The Big East's only Final Four team in 2012 got there by downing the Gators in the Elite Eight, and the matchup of Louisville's Rick Pitino against Florida's Billy Donovan will always be narratively rich.

Instead, the Gators got a Sweet Sixteen rematch with Marquette.

Florida will host the Golden Eagles on November 29 in the O'Connell Center, in one of the biggest home games of the Gators' 2012-13 schedule, but there will be far less excitement this matchup than there would have been for one with Louisville. That's probably not the Gators' fault, though: Louisville either won't be participating in the SEC-Big East Challenge this year, apparently, with 12 matchups featuring the 12 current SEC teams all announced, or the Cardinals will be matched up with either Missouri or Texas A&M, the SEC's newcomers.

Florida put away Marquette late in that Sweet Sixteen game, 68-58, and the Golden Eagles may be scuffling at the beginning of the 2012-13 season while trying to replace Jae Crowder and Darius Johnson-Odom, both stellar seniors last year. Florida returns every significant contributor from its 2011-12 roster save Erving Walker.

And so I put it to you: Are you happy with playing Marquette, or would you have wanted one of the Big East's bigger names?