What ESPN lost in the Pac-12’s 2021-22 men’s basketball schedule is probably ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s gain.
T will host Washington on Dec. 2 and play at Oregon State on Dec. 5 next season as part of a cross-promotion around its Dec. 3 football championship game.
The conference spared ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ having to play at Oregon. The Wildcats have lost to the Ducks seven straight times, the last an 80-69 game in Eugene on March 1 that finished out last season, but now will only have to play them at McKale Center next season.
While playing at OSU could be just as difficult — the Beavers are coming off a Pac-12 Tournament title and a surprise Elite Eight run last season — the Ducks have been a marquee opponent for the Wildcats. During the past six seasons, all ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥-Oregon games have been carried by ESPN or ESPN2, often in prime windows.
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Early discussions over the conference’s move to 20 games last season included having a more flexible schedule that might have allowed television partners input on preserving desirable matchups that otherwise might be skipped. But a Pac-12 spokesman said Tuesday that the conference’s coaches and athletic directors ultimately agreed that “maintaining the equity and formality of the schedule rotation†was a priority.
As such, the Pac-12 announced a new rotating 10-year schedule that will have each team play one home game and one road game generally around the Pac-12 football championship game each December, plus an 18-game slate that typically begins around New Year’s Day.
The final 18 games will continue to be mostly played between Wednesday and Sunday, continuing the league’s traditional “travel partner†format that has each team joining its geographical rival most weekends for games against another pair of geographic rivals. The geographic rivals, such as UA and ASU, will continue to always play each other twice each season.
The Pac-12 moved to 20 games last season but couldn’t package all of the games around the football title game because many teams already had nonconference games scheduled. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ was scheduled to host Colorado on Dec. 2 and play at Stanford on Dec. 19 last season, though COVID-19 issues forced the Colorado game to be postponed to Dec. 28 and the Stanford game to be moved to Santa Cruz, California.
Next season, the Wildcats will play both of their early Pac-12 games between a November appearance in the MGM Main Event tournament at Las Vegas and marquee nonconference games at Illinois (Dec. 11) and Tennessee (Dec. 22).
UA also has home nonconference games sprinkled around the early Pac-12 games, with the Wildcats hosting NAU, Texas-Rio Grande Valley, North Dakota State and Sacramento State in November and Wyoming, Northern Colorado and Cal Baptist in December.
In 2022-23, the Wildcats will play at Utah and host Cal early in December, while playing Colorado only at McKale Center and Stanford only at Maples Pavilion.
The Pac-12’s 10-year rotation has different teams rotating into the early December and “skipped†spots each season for the first five seasons, after which the venues will be swapped from the order of the first five seasons. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, for example, will play at Washington and host OSU in December 2026.
The 18-game portion of the 2021-22 Pac-12 schedule has yet to be announced. Weekend pairs of games are typically announced in July, with exact dates and times finalized in late summer.
