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• UConn will play at Tennessee Lady Vols next season, a renewal of what was once women's basketball's greatest rivalry.
• Lady Vols' nonconference games vs. Iowa and UConn will welcome Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell to the big leagues.
• Without Pat Summitt, this rivalry is past its peak, but it's better than no rivalry at all.

Lady Vols fans who despise Geno Auriemma deserve this game.

UConn fans who nauseate at the sight of orange deserve this game.

Women’s basketball diehards deserve this game.

Women’s basketball casuals who tune in to only headline matchups deserve this game.

Kim Caldwell, in the dawn of her Lady Vols tenure, deserves this game.

Auriemma, in the twilight of his legendary career, deserves this game.

Tennessee vs. UConn is a matchup for everyone.

The teams will renew their rivalry next season with a game in Knoxville, a Tennessee spokesman confirmed Wednesday. No date has been announced.

Auriemma first broke the news Saturday during an interview with Knox ����6�Ͽ������ reporter Cora Hall. That Geno, he’s a news maker and news breaker.

I welcome this news. As women’s basketball enjoys its zenith moment, of course a rivalry that once defined the sport should be played – and not just during the 2024-25 season. These blue bloods should play annually. Rivalries retain old fans and attract new ones, and television partners want to showcase games like this.

This rivalry regrettably took a 13-year hiatus after a 2007 meeting before it resumed in 2020. The teams played four straight years before not meeting last season.

LADY VOLS:Why Tennessee women's basketball coach Kim Caldwell knows ability to connect with fans is crucial

ASSESSING THE HIRE:Not an 'A,' but passing marks. How we view Lady Vols' hire of Kim Caldwell

This is just the type of matchup that fosters momentum for women’s basketball after a record-breaking season for viewership. That peak occurred thanks to a cast of stars with big personalities and impressive abilities. The sport also benefited from marquee matchups and a Final Four that included South Carolina, UConn and Iowa.

South Carolina-LSU stirred the pot in the regular season and again in the SEC Championship, before Iowa faced LSU, UConn and South Carolina in succession in the NCAA Tournament, while TV ratings kept climbing.

Don’t waste this moment.

Keep uplifting stars – that includes Auriemma, UConn’s captivating coach, and its standout guard, Paige Bueckers – and schedule games that will drive audience.

UConn-Tennessee is one such game.

Lady Vols’ Kim Caldwell steps onto big stage with marquee matchups

These programs also will appear on Dec. 7 at the Women’s Champions Classic at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. That night, the Lady Vols will play Iowa, followed by UConn-Louisville.

Consider it Caldwell’s welcome to the fast lane.

Pat Summitt would have relished such matchups and the New York staging. As the Lady Vols’ legendary coach, Summitt fiercely promoted women’s basketball, and she scheduled games people wanted to see.

There’s no replacing Caitlin Clark. Iowa’s supernova, with her unique abilities and magnetic aura, attracted fans who never before had given a hoot about women’s hoops.

TOPPMEYER:What would Pat Summitt think of Iowa star Caitlin Clark? I try to find out

But, UConn and the Lady Vols are no novices at propelling the sport. Their rivalry carried women’s basketball in the late 1990s and 2000s.

Lady Vols fans, en masse, loathe Auriemma, who once referred to Summitt’s program as the “Evil Empire.”

The best rivalries feature heroes and villains. Roles are flexible depending on which team you support.

The first meeting of these programs in 1995 sold out months in advance. ESPN televised that game, and Connecticut’s U.S. Senators Christopher Dodd and Joseph Lieberman were among the 8,241 in attendance.

UConn won that initial matchup, then beat Tennessee again 2½ months later in the Final Four, en route to its first national championship.

Hello, rivalry.

Lady Vols-UConn rivalry misses Pat Summitt, but game still important

Neither program is what it was then. UConn is fresh off a Final Four appearance, but it hasn’t captured a national championship since Auriemma won his 11th in 2016.

Tennessee last won a national title in 2008. It hasn’t reached a Final Four since then.

You wouldn’t have known that, though, when this rivalry renewed in 2020 inside a pulsing arena in Hartford, Connecticut. I covered that game at the XL Center, attended by 13,659 fans.

No, it wasn’t the rivalry’s heyday. That’s finished.

Throughout this rivalry’s peak, each team featured star-studded rosters. ����6�Ͽ������ than anything, though, this rivalry was Pat vs. Geno.

Nevertheless, that 2020 night in Hartford didn’t feel like just another game. A palpable energy permeated the arena.

In the leadup to that game, Auriemma downplayed the rivalry’s renewal. After his Huskies beat Tennessee 60-45, he said the rivalry isn’t the same without Summitt. That’s true. Still, he admitted, it could “still be something special.”

A rivalry past its peak remains better than no rivalry at all. A game that’s meant so much to women’s basketball should join in on the sport’s crescendo.

 is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter .

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