The season has officially come to a close, so with that, welcome to the 25-26 Griz Basketball Schedule Tracker. I will once again take the reins on unveiling all 31 games for next season, and this year for the first time in 3 years, we are starting off with one known opponent as Northern Iowa will come to Missoula on Friday November 14 in the return game of a home and home series that originated this season in Cedar Falls in a game we were an absolute no show in. Here are some things to note about next seasons schedule:
As of August 29, here’s what we know:
11/8 @ Stanford
11/11 @ UNLV
11/14 vs. Northern Iowa
11/18 @ Texas A&M
11/23 vs. Lamar
11/25 vs. Oakland
12/3 vs. North Dakota State
12/6 @ North Dakota
12/20 @ Louisville
TBD vs. Cal Poly
January 1 vs. Northern Arizona
January 3 vs. Northern Colorado
January 8 @ Idaho
January 10 @ Eastern Washington
January 17 @ Montana State
January 19 @ Northern Arizona
January 22 vs. Weber State
January 24 vs. Idaho State
January 29 @ Portland State
January 31 @ Sacramento State
February 5 vs. Eastern Washington
February 7 vs. Idaho
February 14 vs. Montana State
February 19 @ Idaho State
February 21 @ Weber State
February 26 vs. Sacramento State
February 28 vs. Portland State
March 2 @ Northern Colorado
- 31 total games comprised of 13 non-conference games and 18 conference games with the start of the regular season commencing on Monday November 3 and concluding on Monday March 2.
- 18 game conference schedule that comprises a double round robin of every team playing each other at home and on the road. Conference play will begin on Thursday January 1 and will conclude on Monday March 2. Typically, the only difference we’ll see is they’ll invert the schedule. For example, we played the cats at home in the first half of the schedule, so next year we’ll play them at home in the second half of the schedule. Same goes for everyone else. Last years conference schedule was released on July 18, and I suspect it will be around that same time again.
- 13 non-conference games that will comprise of home and home games (UNI), 3 game MTE (likely at home again), money games (likely 3-4), non-D1 home games (likely 2-3), and the 2 Summit League challenge games (vs. NDSU, @ UND). The Summit League games will be played on Wednesday December 3 and Saturday December 6.
- As for money games, I would once again expect to see about 3-4 but I’ll say 3. This year Oregon, Tennessee, Utah State, and San Francisco were all money games. Oregon has kind of become an annual opponent for us so I will not be surprised if we see them again next year. Another one to keep an eye on is Texas. Rumors are circulating that Texas is going to hire Sean Miller as their new coach. We routinely played Arizona when he was there, then we played Xavier in his first season there, and I think there’s a chance we could be playing Miller again if he goes to Texas. I also think we’ll play at least 1 Mountain West team again and my early prediction is a team that we haven’t seen in a while (Boise State). Wouldn’t be surprised to see San Jose State pop back up again next year, maybe an Air Force or possibly Nevada who we saw two years ago.
- As for mid majors, we already know Northern Iowa is coming to Missoula, but who else might we see in the MTE? I think we’ll see at least one Big West team this year, perhaps another Summit League team outside of our two challenge series games, maybe another WAC team like perhaps Seattle U or Southern Utah. If we host a 3 game MTE again plus UNI and whoever our Summit home opponent is, then that would already put us at 5 D1 home games. That would be more than we had this year and then we would only have to schedule two non D1 home games instead of three next year. Unless Decuire wanted to play 8 home games in the non-conference, then we could see three but I’m not totally sure he would do that.
- As for road games, unless they were to add another home and home that starts us on the road next year, I have no clue what we could see for mid major road games besides our one Summit League game. Maybe Decuire would take a road game at one of the Dakota schools perhaps? Perhaps another WCC team? We’ve seen Santa Clara, Gonzaga and San Francisco in recent years. Maybe we see like a Pepperdine or a San Diego or someone like that? I’ll be interested to see our mid major road games next year.
- The last 2 seasons we’ve hosted Tech and NWIC in Missoula. Tech has shown quite the interest in wanting to play us over the years as has NWIC, but that’d be really lame to see both of them again next year. I hope we shake it up and go with someone different next year like Carroll or Rocky. That’d be fun. The non-D1 games are usually the last games added to the schedule as they like to nail down all the D1 opponents and then fill in the remaining holes with NAIA’s or whoever. I will say I do like playing a non-D1 in the opener as I think that’s a good way to knock the rust off from the Summer and get your feet wet. So I suspect our opener on Monday the 4th will come against a non-D1.
As of August 29, here’s what we know:
11/8 @ Stanford
11/11 @ UNLV
11/14 vs. Northern Iowa
11/18 @ Texas A&M
11/23 vs. Lamar
11/25 vs. Oakland
12/3 vs. North Dakota State
12/6 @ North Dakota
12/20 @ Louisville
TBD vs. Cal Poly
January 1 vs. Northern Arizona
January 3 vs. Northern Colorado
January 8 @ Idaho
January 10 @ Eastern Washington
January 17 @ Montana State
January 19 @ Northern Arizona
January 22 vs. Weber State
January 24 vs. Idaho State
January 29 @ Portland State
January 31 @ Sacramento State
February 5 vs. Eastern Washington
February 7 vs. Idaho
February 14 vs. Montana State
February 19 @ Idaho State
February 21 @ Weber State
February 26 vs. Sacramento State
February 28 vs. Portland State
March 2 @ Northern Colorado
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