It's been a little bit since the UT Arlington women's basketball team released the upcoming schedule, but I still wanted to touch on it. The schedule detective likes to see a job through until the end. As usual, I'll list the released schedule, then give a little commentary on it afterwards.
Nov. 3 SACRAMENTO ST.
Nov. 5 LAMAR
Nov. 10 @ Wyoming
Nov. 14 LSU-SHREVEPORT
Nov. 18 @ Texas Christian
Nov. 22 @ Tennessee St.
BIG EASY CLASSIC
Nov. 27 vs. West Florida
Nov. 28 vs. Fresno St.
Dec. 12 STETSON
Dec. 16 @ Missouri St
Dec. 19 FLORIDA GULF COAST
Dec, 28 @ West Florida
Jan. 2 @ North Florida
Jan. 6 ABILENE CHRISTIAN
Jan. 13 @ Central Arkansas
Jan. 16 @ Little Rock
Jan. 20 @ Tarleton
Jan. 23 AUSTIN PEAY
Jan. 27 WEST GEORGIA
Jan. 30 NORTH ALABAMA
Feb. 3 @ Eastern Kentucky
Feb. 6 @ Austin Peay
Feb. 10 @ Abilene Christian
Feb. 13 CENTRAL ARKANSAS
Feb. 17 EASTERN KENTUCKY
Feb. 24 @ West Georgia
Feb. 27 @ North Alabama
March 3 TARLETON ST.
March 6 LITTLE ROCK
Overall, I'm a fan of this. I liked last year's better, but it is still a solid schedule. Like the men's version, there are four total games against the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Big Easy Classic isn't part of that scheduling agreement, so the ladies actually have five ASUN games this year. In a weird twist, it's five games against four teams.
Home non-conference games against a familiar Southland School, a Big West U and the ASUN teams. There is only one non-DI team. While it isn't a nearby Texas school, Shreveport is close enough to attract mild regional attention. I'd like to see more schools UTA has had a history with, but it takes two to tango and I'm not sure how difficult that has been to acheive.
The travel isn't too wild either. Wyoming, Tennessee and Florida in addition to the New Orleans Multi-Team Event. Even the guarantee game in Fort Worth is super manageable. And I really like seeing TCU on the schedule UTA. It is something that is increasingly rare and I touched on it in an entry to This Day in UTA Football History.
No North Texas nor SMU, which isn't surprising. Too often the regional teams do not appear. Getting one is a small win. Expanding statewide, 13 non-conference games, two Texas teams. Sadly, that is also not surprising. Not counting United Athletic Conference teams, UTA has played 19 other Texas teams in Division I. I'd like to see more Texas teams, but understand it just isn't going to get much better unless something drastically changes in how the National Collegiate Athletic Association operates.
UTA completes three home-and-home series contracts on the road with Missouri State, Tennessee State and Wyoming. Lamar completes a home-and-home series in Arlington. Without being 100 percent sure, it looks like Sacramento State is the only new contract. I'd expect a return game next year.
However, I'm not sure what the ASUN/UAC scheduling situation looks like. Will the teams flip locations next year like a typical home-and-home contract? Will it be like a typical conference scheduling alliance and the teams change every year? For both genders, it resulted in four games, and that was the case pretty universally across the two conferences. In this era of challenging scheduling, that results in a large swath of games, nearly a third of the total non-conference games.
As for UAC play, you play who is in the conference. I'm generally ambivalent to satisfied with the lineup. I like the general scheduling setup. I'm not a schedule maker myself and recognize there are a lot of things in the recipe to make it work. Odd teams, reducing travel costs with consecutive games against close schools, time of year, etc. all play a factor. I'm sure I missed something else that goes into the process.
However, overall the team is on the road in conference for most of winter break. My biggest gripe is the lone winter break UAC home game is against Abilene Christian. I'd rather play the quartet of eastern schools over the break and save the regional ones for when school is back in session.
On the positive side, I'm glad to see the home-and-home, round-robin format back. It was a necessary thing to play each Western Athletic Conference school three times last year, but I hated everything about it. I don't know how much it impacted seeding or the actual conference tournament. I tend to think the winner would have been the winner regardless, but there were definitely teams that did better than others. If you were the second place team and played the first and third at their place twice, would you have been the first in a standard setting?
And this is what I want the conference to keep moving forward. UTA's old home has gone too big and you certainly see it in the big conferences. The best format is and always will be the round robin. I saw a Power 4 school in football make the championship game because their schedule dodged the top teams. Even divisional play has issues when there are cross divisional games. Unless the conferences get so big there are only divisional games, then the divisional winners play for the crown, there will be competitive issues. If there aren't inter-divisional games, you get issues relating to who is in what division. Using the Sun Belt, at one point, Georgia State, Troy, South Alabama and Southern Mississippi are in the center of the footprint or in close proximity to the other. Which one goes in what division and who misses on opportunities to draw visiting fans?
The UAC doesn't have that problem. Maybe add a team like Stephen F. Austin that fits geography and completes true travel partners. I personally think ten is the best number. Nine is right behind that number. I don't want it changed.
We are less than a month now from the start of it all. I lean towards the positive side as a whole and look forward to the start of the season.
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