6/20 update: Changing the format a bit. Here's what I think we know.

Semi-Confirmed games: (either official or high reliability sourcing)
11/4 - Central Florida - Away
11/8 - A&M Commerce - Home
11/11 - Lamar - Home
11/15 - Ohio State - Home
11/26, 27, 29 - Players Era Festival - Las Vegas
12/3 - Wake Forest - Home (ACC/SEC Challenge)
12/14 - Purdue - Indianapolis

TBD:
Texas Tech - Away - Previously scheduled for 11/29, now conflicts with Players Era Festival

Conference games:
Alabama
Arkansas
Auburn
Georgia
LSU
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Texas
Vanderbilt
at Florida
at Kentucky
at LSU
at Ole Miss
at Mississippi State
at Missouri
at Oklahoma
at South Carolina
at Texas

Starting a home & home with Tech on Nov. 29 in Lubbock. 2025 in CS

https://12thman.com/news/2023/12/19/mens-basketball-texas-am-renews-rivalry-with-red-raiders-with-home-and-home-series

Wow how did I forget that one. Added! I remember being annoyed that we have an away game the night before the Texas game. Wish that were a home game.

Buzz has mentioned the MTE will be the Charleston Classic. Not confirmed yet but that information is directly from Buzz.

added, I seem to remember him saying that

What about the conference schedule format. I know they have announced the format but I can't remember exactly. I think its two permanent opponents one rotating and then single game against the rest for total of 18. Believe we get tu and LSU.

Yeah, that's the format but I don't think it's official that we get Texas and LSU, though that would make sense.

Assuming there's any logic to it I imagine the teams near us are something like:

A&M: Texas and LSU
Texas: A&M and OU
OU: Texas and Arkansas
Arkansas: OU and Missouri
Missouri: Arkansas and LSU(?)
LSU: A&M and Ole Miss

Which means we probably get Texas and something silly, like Georgia.

at least Georgia sucks. Not that that helped us this year against Vandy and Arkansas...

What else do y'all think we should expect in the non-conference? If we try to go as tough as we did this past year, hopefully 2-3 more "good" matchups, maybe one at a neutral site, one on the road and 1 at home.

I would think Missouri and Oklahoma would be paired.

We should Baylor home and home permanently.

Yeah you could flip those ones around a bit and they'd still make sense. OU could get Texas and Missouri, then Missouri gets OU and Arkansas, Arkansas gets OU and LSU, etc.

My main point is that I think those five schools, us, Texas, OU, Arkansas and Missouri are all probably locked into a big circle of playing each other.

What I don't know is if they'll close the loops or does it have to be one big loop.

Like you could do:
A&M: Texas and LSU
Texas: A&M and OU
OU: Texas and Missouri
Missouri: OU and Arkansas
Arkansas: Missouri and LSU
LSU: A&M and Arkansas.

And then just have the other 10 schools in a big loop too or smaller loops.

I would not be shocked if we have a neutral site game or two added. Coaches understand the value of those now. And TexAgs wlll cause an uproar when they schedule them

Houston in Houston was a good one.

So good we're probably due for a terrible one. We'll play like Minnesota in San Antonio on New Year's Eve.

The SEC/ACC challenge game should be the week after Thanksgiving (Tue 12/3 or Wed 12/4).

Here are my predictions for the new SEC permanent rivals starting in the 24/25 season.

Alabama: Auburn, Mississippi State
Arkansas: Missouri, LSU
Auburn: Alabama, Ole Miss
Florida: Kentucky, Georgia
Georgia: South Carolina, Florida
Kentucky: Florida, Tennessee
LSU: Texas A&M, Arkansas
Oklahoma: Texas, Missouri
Ole Miss: Mississippi State, Auburn
Mississippi State: Ole Miss, Alabama
Missouri: Arkansas, Oklahoma
South Carolina: Georgia, Vanderbilt
Tennessee: Vanderbilt, Kentucky
Texas A&M: LSU, Texas
Texas: Texas A&M, Oklahoma
Vanderbilt: Tennessee, South Carolina

We're definitely going to see Buzz continue to schedule tough road games in the non-con I would think. He learned from prior years and was rewarded for our schedule this season, so I don't see us going away from that strategy going forward.

Yeah, I mean look at how much rope our non-con bought us even though we didn't even do all that well against it. We went 9-9 in league play, absolutely got our asses kicked a couple times, lost three games to two of the worst teams in the conference and we still ended up not even that close to the bubble (though that was obviously helped by winning two games in the SECT.)

Would be ridiculous to go back the other way. Although most of us knew it was ridiculous in the first place to have schedules so bad previously.

San Antonio had a doubleheader on the same day we played in Houston with Tennessee and Ole Miss. I can see us playing maybe a west coast team paired with say LSU on that Saturday around December 10. Reed will be used for graduations that weekend so usually see a neutral site game that weekend.

bobinator said:

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Yeah, I mean look at how much rope our non-con bought us even though we didn't even do all that well against it. We went 9-9 in league play, absolutely got our asses kicked a couple times, lost three games to two of the worst teams in the conference and we still ended up not even that close to the bubble (though that was obviously helped by winning two games in the SECT.)

Would be ridiculous to go back the other way. Although most of us knew it was ridiculous in the first place to have schedules so bad previously.

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This. Plus the tough non-con games are so much better to watch.

Charleston Classic would be a nice tourney invite. For everyone's sake, the 2023 field for the tourney was:

Dayton, Houston, LSU, UNT, St John's, Townson, Utah and Wake Forest.

For 2022, it was Colorado St, Davidson, Va Tech, Furman, ODU, South Carolina, College of Charleston and Penn St.

So, pretty decent...not a premier invite, but respectable

bobinator said:

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Houston in Houston was a good one.

So good we're probably due for a terrible one. We'll play like Minnesota in San Antonio on New Year's Eve.

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You just want it to be a team you think will be top 75 in the NET and that team wants to play a team that will be top 75 in the NET

I forgot I was on the basketball forum when I opened this thread. So when I start reading your post and for a split second think this is football related. Almost fell out of my chair.

Still cool for basketball though.

bobinator said:

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Yeah, I mean look at how much rope our non-con bought us even though we didn't even do all that well against it. We went 9-9 in league play, absolutely got our asses kicked a couple times, lost three games to two of the worst teams in the conference and we still ended up not even that close to the bubble (though that was obviously helped by winning two games in the SECT.)

Would be ridiculous to go back the other way. Although most of us knew it was ridiculous in the first place to have schedules so bad previously.

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yep

those ridiculously easy ooc schedules are for coaches that are taking over terrible programs and trying to build confidence and momentum with very winnable games.

for a program like ours, we need to be scheduling tough ooc games to increase our tournament chances/seeding

I will be interested to see if these Big East and ACC coaches go through with their thoughts of playing bad competition and trying to blow them out. Some of them seem to forget that it is hard to win games by 40, even against bad teams, unless you're really good. Yeah, maybe Iowa St did it, but they're also really damn good.

In all of their whining about schools supposedly manipulating the NET, they didn't seem to take notice of programs like us and Mich St who challenged themselves, didn't even play all that well, and still got rewarded.

bobinator said:

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Confirmed games:
Ohio State - Home - Date TBD
Texas Tech - Away - Nov. 29 (1st of a Home-and-Home)
SEC/ACC Challenge - Should be home - Date TBD

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Forgot I was on the Basketball Forum instead of Football and started thinking:

Ohio State? Oh man!
Tech on Thanksgiving weekend? WTH?

Yeah, us in 2022 and 2023 are good examples of the risks of bad schedules. If your team isn't ready or you have some injuries and lose a couple of those games it can really get you in trouble fast.

If y'all ever see me start a thread on the football forum call the cops because I've been hacked/killed/etc.

The football forum is bad. It's the main reason I get a subscription from time to time to talk football on premium. Or read some premium specific articles.


Both the baseball and basketball boards are pretty darn good. Premium is actually pretty bad for basketball. Just football fans trying to act like they know about basketball.

With Reed being used for graduations the weekend of Dec. 14 I'd almost guarantee a neutral site game that weekend a la Houston @ the Toyota Center this year.

I will say I'm so tempted to make the drive to Lubbock and back and pull the double with the Texas game.

TheTexian said:

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With Reed being used for graduations the weekend of Dec. 14 I'd almost guarantee a neutral site game that weekend a la Houston @ the Toyota Center this year.

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Tcu at Dickies Arena wouldn't be bad. That should be a quad 1 game.

We should play Tech and Baylor every year.

That exact game happened back in 2021. I'd expect Dallas/Fort Worth/Houston/San Antonio, pretty sure all of those places had showcases this year. I'd love Dickies Arena though.

The Houston game was paired with Texas/LSU as a doubleheader, so I'd be keeping an eye on other power schools in Texas (including SMU now that they're in the ACC) schedules for any clues there.

Would like to play UH again. A SOS booster for both teams in the non-con, plus it seems like Buzz and Sampson have a good relationship. Especially after this weekend it would have some juice too.