2026/27 Men's Basketball Schedule.

I had a comment for the schedule detective when I found that Jacksonville of the Atlantic Sun was visiting Arlington in December. However, there was an error and when I pressed publish, the comment box came up the said "publishing..." but it never would actually publish. I did it many times and tried different ways but no success. 

In the end, it didn't matter terribly much as the schedule is basically done. I got a copy of the schedule, sans start times. Everything I learned was there and of course the rest has been filled in with no real surprises. 

The schedule for this coming year:

UTA FB History: Vol. 10 Gm. 1 - 1981 Rerun

Today is the first iteration of This Day in UTA Football History for the 2026 season. Unfortunately, there is only one game that has occurred on this date and that was covered 11 years ago today in 2015. For those that know, they know why 1981 was an important season. However, it both exemplifies and shows what could have been with Maverick Football. 

On this Day in UTA football history, UTA opens the 1981 season.

The Maverick Rambler: UTA Football Vol. 3, Game 1: End of an Era

It Begins

The UT Arlington volleyball team began the 2026 season this past weekend at the Razorback Invitational. After a 2-1 start, all three matches showed a team that looks much improved over last year's team. Now, if you remember, last year's team was 8-5 in the non-conference, but had a disappointing showing with a 3-8 record in Western Athletic Conference play. At one point, they were 8-2. However, if you look back at my posts, I saw cracks in the armor and that 8-2 start that gave me concern.

Before I continue, I just want to get a warning in that there's a real chance my volleyball coverage will not be as frequent or regular as the past two years. I work half my work week on the weekend for my regular bill paying job, so getting to physically watch the games will be a challenge. I volunteered to be the booster club president for the junior high school two of my boys attend. While it isn't set in stone, it does look like they will both start for their respective grade. In addition, my junior in high school has transitioned from junior varsity starter to varsity starter. There's a real chance there will be very little down time. That's to say nothing of This Day in UTA Football History, which usually requires around two hours, sometimes more, per entry. This week's entry will be a repeat, so there's not much to it, giving me time to give the volleyball team and its players their proper due.

Plus, I'm already behind. Before I get into the weekend's start, the United Athletic Conference released their preseason poll and just by looking it over and knowing what occurred last year, there's a real chance this will be the toughest slate since UTA left the Sun Belt Conference.

The coaches predicted the following finish:

That's one way to do it

I mentioned several months ago about Chicago State starting a football team. We were in the middle of an athletic year and I generally try to avoid more esoteric topics when games and competitions are in high gear. We aren't now and I want to briefly touch on their journey to a football team.

For those who aren't familiar, Chicago State is a poor, cash-strapped athletic program with declining enrollment. They have had a hard time finding a conference home for much of this century. They were in the Great West Conference, a coalition of wayward schools that did not have a formal path to the postseason. UT Rio Grande Valley's precursor, UT Pan American, was in that conference. Both schools took advantage of the Western Athletic Conference's desperation and CSU became a conditional member. Essentially, they paid the WAC to be a member. It really didn't help them overall, as they remained a cash-strapped program.

When the WAC added the Texas Four and later UT Arlington, along with other schools, the WAC declined to renew the conditions and the Cougars were independents again. They had no home in the late 1980's and early 90's, and again in the mid-2000's. The third time, they had decided no more.

2026 Schedule Detective

For those new to the blog or who need a reminder, in the summer, I try to piece together the upcoming basketball schedules from various sources. It usually is a combination of Rocco Miller on X, looking at certain team's releases and conference release of UT Arlington's current home. 

This year has been really quiet in that regard. I have yet to see UTA on anyone else's schedule. No guarantee games at a larger school, no certified home and home releases. I can speculate on who is a second game from a previous home-and-home, but like Oral Roberts showed, there was a year between the two games contract so nothing is set in stone.

With that said, the only official release I have is from the United Athletic Conference. This week, they released the conference slate and the former Western Athletic Conference turned UAC is doing away with what they have done the last few years. 

And I'm on board with it.

A Hint of Things to Come

A little over a week ago, I went to the website of the Western Athletic Conference to finish up some statistical attendance numbers from this past athletic year. However, WACSports.com was redirected to UACSports.com and the site itself was redesigned. 

The look was clean, but the colors were different and brighter. I like the more subtle look of the old site but do like the color scheme of the new one. It does reinforce several things that I had learned over the years but contradicts some persistent rumors that were false that just wouldn't go away. It also revealed some new information.

The first, and what I think is the most egregious persistent falsehood is the conference has not gone away, this is not a new conference. I've heard verbally and seen online that folks still think the WAC is now a defunct conference. The three holdover members of the WAC, Abilene Christian, Tarleton State and UT Arlington, have welcomed five former Atlantic Sun members and the Little Rock Trojans to the fold. It is no different than any other conference welcoming new members and saying goodbye to old ones.

Flag Football Proceeds

There's been some developments in UT Arlington's fledgling women's flag football program that kind of got lost in the spring sport shuffle of the previous three or four months. Some of the news is internal, some external and with that comes speculation.

In my last full post on the topic, seen here, it mentioned the American Southwest Conference, a Division III conference composed primarily of small private schools, will sponsor the sport. They were the first NCAA conference to sponsor flag football. I heard minor speculation that the ASC could be a home for UTA's newest sport. Without hearing anything from an official source, I had then and still have doubts. I speculated there would be a DI conference offering the sport within half a decade.

Turns out, that was too long. In April, the Big South Conference announced they would sponsor the sport, becoming the first at the highest level to take the plunge. What's interesting to me is how the schools in the Big South treat flag football.