When it was announced that college basketball heavyweights Kansas, Michigan State, Indiana and Arizona would play at the Stan Sheriff Center in November the first impression was — chee-hoo! — about time they brought the Rainbow Classic back in style.

The storied original long on history, not the watered down imitation of recent vintage low on RPI and name recognition.

All four teams were part of Rainbow Classic lore, especially Kansas, who was in the celebrated 1992 field that sent (with North Carolina and Michigan) three teams to the NCAA Final Four that season.

Instead, it turns out that while the Jayhawks, Spartans, Hoosiers and Wildcats will, indeed, play at the Sheriff Center on Nov. 11, it isn’t in the Rainbow Classic of the same date nor will any of them be playing the host University of Hawaii.

Those four powerhouses, all potentially top 15 teams, will be playing each other (Arizona vs. Michigan State and Kansas vs. Indiana) in ESPN’s made-for-TV Armed Forces Classic. Some hours later, on the same night in a cruel parody of the past, the Rainbow Warriors open their season with Southern Illinois Edwardsville in what has become of the Rainbow Classic. One that also includes Texas State and Florida Atlantic.

Aesthetics aside, UH gets a guaranteed victory over the Cougars and, in addition to the bucks from its own tournament, stands to make, by its estimates, $65,000-$70,000, plus ESPN’s gratitude, for renting out its arena for a few hours for the network’s Armed Forces Classic.

“Obviously the money is nice, but it is also a great to be part of something meaningful and impactful,” athletic director David Matlin said.

UH will get a 25 to 50 percent cut of the non-military ticket sales and keeps the concessions, parking and merchandise revenue from the AFC games plus rent, according to the contract.

After the AFC, UH will clear the building and the parking before ushering in its Rainbow Classic, with tip-off of the ‘Bows’ game expected to be well after 8 p.m.

The fifth AFC, on Veterans Day, just prior to the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, was originally scheduled for Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, where ESPN had considered holding the games in a hangar.

But Clint Overby, ESPN senior director of events, said both the hangar and Bloch Arena, even with additional seating brought it, would not accommodate the 3,500-4,500-member military audience expected, much less fans from visiting teams or local interest.

Last year ESPN was forced to call off the AFC game between Pittsburgh and Gonzaga when humidity after a torrential downpour left the court unplayable at Camp Foster on Okinawa.

Even with the shift to the Stan Sheriff Center, Overby said plans are for the players to take part in a number of events on base.

Meanwhile, for one night at least, fans can see some of college basketball’s best teams assembled and showcased the way they once were in the Rainbow Classic.

Back when “classic” was a description, not just a title.

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CORRECTION: Michigan State will play the Nov. 11 Armed Forces Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center, not Michigan as was listed in the Sept. 10 Ferd Lewis column.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.