Texas and Washington to Take a Regular Season Basketball Game International in 2015

Over the weekend college basketball fans were treated to a number of awesome games and great finishes, but for two schools there was also some news about the future that was pretty big. It seems that current and future players for the Texas Longhorns and Washington Huskies are going to need their passports in 2015.

They are going to China.

@SBNationGIF/Twitter

The two teams are going to open the 2015-16 season in Shanghai. American teams--pro and college-- have travelled to China for exhibition games in the past, but this will be the firs time that a regular season game will take place there.

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott had this to say:

“The Pac-12 and our universities are proud to be pioneers in China,” Scott said. “This event is a great step forward for our initiative designed to use sport and cultural exchange to support the international strategies that many of our universities have embarked on to extend their reach into China.”

As a former AD of a Pac-12 school, Texas Athletic Director Steve Patterson, was the perfect person for Washington and the Pac-12 to partner with in this endeavor. Patterson has expressed a desire to expand the Longhorns brand on an international level in the past by playing a non-conference football game in Mexico City.

 

Moving a football game to another country--while it has been done--is a lot tougher than a basketball game though. That being said it will certainly not be easy on the two basketball teams either. It will be interesting to see how much time the teams take off after the game before playing another one.

 

[PAC-12]

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