Aug 05 (Sun) Texas Southern (exh)
Aug 11 (Sat) TCU (exh)
Aug 17 (Fri) @ Hawaii
Aug 19 (Sun) Loyola Marymount (@ Hawaii)
Aug 24 (Fri) BYU
Aug 26 (Sun) San Diego
Aug 31 (Fri) Oklahoma

Sep 02 (Sun) Santa Clara
Sep 07 (Fri) Colorado College
Sep 09 (Sun) William & Mary
Sep 14 (Fri) LSU
Sep 16 (Sun) Kansas
Sep 20 (Thu) @ Arkansas
Sep 23 (Sun) Georgia
Sep 28 (Fri) @ Ole Miss

Oct 04 (Thu) Auburn
Oct 07 (Sun) @ Kentucky
Oct 12 (Fri) Mississippi St
Oct 18 (Thu) @ Alabama
Oct 21 (Sun) Tennessee
Oct 25 (Thu) @ South Carolina


14 home games. No Florida. End season with South Carolina. 2 games in Hawaii, only 1 Thursday home game.

On paper, and based on last year's results, this is one of the weakest non-conference schedules A&M will have ever played. 9 of the 10 opponents had losing records last year, including usually good programs BYU and San Diego. Santa Clara is obviously a great match-up, but they are the only winning team and NCAA team from last year, which is really shocking to me. What has happened to all the tough schedules we used to see in the past with UNC, Penn State, UCLA, etc.?

Now, obviously a few of these games are not necessarily Coach G's fault because San Diego and Kansas are return games and they were scheduled when they were both hot programs coming off NCAA tourneys. Also, BYU was probably signed last year before their horrible season ensued. But there is still Colorado College and William & Mary, which doesn't exactly help the RPI. Oklahoma was decent a few years ago but they were one of the worst Power 5 teams in the country last season. The Hawaii trip is fine because it's obviously a fun trip for the team and two easy wins, but it does look like the rest of the schedule was softened up by playing name schools who are in a recent slump to disguise the fact that this is a weak schedule intended to run up the win totals.

And that makes almost all these games must-wins if A&M wants to avoid a poor RPI next season because the SOS will be very poor unless several of these schools rebound with big seasons. Our only hope is that the SEC is strong again in the RPI and the closing stretch against Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina (who should be way down) lifts the SOS enough to warrant a seed in the NCAA tourney. It does seem like the coaches believe this will be a rebuilding year even though there is enough talent to make a run at a high seed again. We really won't know how good this team is during the season because we'll only be tested a few times in the regular season before the NCAA tourney, which means we probably won't be ready to play an elite opponent and the chances of advancing beyond the 2nd round will not be good.