This season's City Series doubleheaders

The 2010-11 college basketball season has officially arrived. The very first game is Rhode Island at Pittsburgh in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, tonight at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.

In honor of the occasion, I've put together a couple of items for us to talk about. The first is this season's schedule of unofficial Saturday doubleheaders involving City Six teams. We all know how lucky we are to have so many Division I programs in our region, and even more so that we can jump around from one to the other very easily.

So here's the schedule. You'll notice a couple of interesting combinations, and I'll have more to say about them below.

November 20

1a. Morgan State at La Salle, Tom Gola Arena, 3:00 p.m.
1b. Norfolk State at Saint Joseph's, Hagan Arena, 4:00 p.m.
2. Drexel at Penn, The Palestra, 7:00 p.m.

December 18

1. Northern Illinois at Temple, Liacouras Center, 2:00 p.m.
2. Delaware at Villanova, Wells Fargo Center, 7:30 p.m.

January 22

1. Northeastern at Drexel, Daskalakis Athletic Center, 2:00 p.m.
2. Penn vs. Saint Joseph's, The Palestra, 7:00 p.m.

January 29

1a. Temple vs. Saint Joseph's, The Palestra, 11:00 a.m.
1b. Georgetown at Villanova, Wells Fargo Center, 12:00 p.m.
2. Brown at Penn, The Palestra, 7:00 p.m.

February 5

1a. West Virginia at Villanova, Wells Fargo Center, 12:00 p.m.
1b. Rhode Island at Temple, Liacouras Center, 2:00 p.m.
2a. Dayton at La Salle, Tom Gola Arena, 6:00 p.m.
2b. Massachusetts at Saint Joseph's, Hagan Arena, 7:00 p.m.
2b. Harvard at Penn, The Palestra, 7:00 p.m.

February 19

1. BracketBuseters TBA at Drexel, Daskalakis Athletic Center, if an afternoon tipoff
2. George Washington at La Salle, Tom Gola Arena, 7:00 p.m.

Feburary 26

1. St. John's at Villanova, Wells Fargo Center, 12:00 p.m.
2. St. Bonaventure at Saint Joseph's, Hagan Arena, 4:00 p.m.
3. Cornell at Penn, The Palestra, 7:00 p.m.

Obviously, the first thing that stands out is having conflicting games on January 29. They aren't just any two games, either. Both are tremendous rivalries with decades' worth of history, and both ought to have the spotlight to themselves.

The second thing that stands out is the tripleheader on February 26. I know I will try to make all three games, and I wonder if any of you will as well. Then there's February 5, when five of the City Six teams play home games. I don't know what the record is for the most people to attend college basketball games across the region in one day, but I think it will be threatened.

Next, we have another quirk of the local schedule. Quite a few teams outside our region play more than one Big 5 team this season. Obviously, some of them are Atlantic 10 teams, so I will only count them if they have a non-conference game against a Big 5 team. The same goes for the Big East.

(Yes, I said Big 5, not City Six. Drexel is excluded this time, because they aren't in the official City Series.)

Here are the teams involved, in alphabetical order. Games with asterisks indicate matchups that could happen in knockout tournaments. If the games don't take place, the teams will come off the board.

Should we keep a standings table?

Thanks to commenter montco1 for catching the St. Joe's-Boston University game that I originally missed.

Boston University: at Villanova Nov. 17*, vs. La Salle Dec. 9, vs. Saint Joseph's Dec. 21
Bucknell: at Villanova Nov. 12, at La Salle Dec. 17
Columbia: at La Salle Nov. 12, vs. Penn Feb. 12, at Penn Feb. 25
Delaware: at Villanova Dec. 18, vs. Penn Dec. 22
George Washington: at Villanova Nov. 17*, vs. La Salle Jan. 5, at Saint Joseph's Jan. 8, at La Salle Feb. 19, vs, Temple Feb. 26)
Georgetown: at Temple Dec. 9, at Villanova Jan. 29
Lafayette: at Villanova Nov. 20, at Penn Nov. 23

Marist: at Villanova Nov. 16, vs. Penn Dec. 29
Maryland: vs. Temple Dec. 5, at Villanova Jan. 15
Notre Dame: vs. Temple Nov. 26*, vs. Villanova Feb. 28
Pittsburgh: vs. Penn Nov. 26, at Villanova Feb. 12, vs. Villanova Mar. 5
Princeton: vs. Saint Joseph's Dec. 5, vs. Penn Feb. 8, at Penn Mar. 8
Providence: (vs. La Salle at Cancun Nov. 23, vs. Villanova Jan. 26
Rutgers: vs. Saint Joseph's at the Palestra Nov. 26, at Villanova Jan. 2, vs. Villanova Feb. 9
Seton Hall: at Temple Nov. 12, vs. Villanova Feb. 15

Finally, Ken Pomeroy is out with his preseason Division I team ratings. So I figured I should start the Crunchy Numbers table today, before the first game is played. None of the other ratings have started yet, but at least this is something.

Enjoy the start of the season, everyone.