The Charlotte 49ers men's and women's basketball programs have released their 2020-21 Conference USA regular-season schedules, which follows the league's Health and Safety Model format. Each team will play 18 conference games against nine different opponents with two games each week. View the men's basketball schedule; here is the women's basketball schedule.
Format changes
In taking the utmost consideration and evaluation from C-USA’s Futures Planning Committee that focuses on the health and safety of student-athletes, each school will face the same opponent twice in the same week with games played Thursday and Saturday. In eight of the nine weeks, both contests will be played at the same location. This format will aim to minimize the risks associated with COVID-19 as well as significantly reduce travel costs around the league.
"Conference USA is again thinking outside the box," said men’s basketball head coach Ron Sanchez. "The league has taken into consideration the health and safety of the players and coaching staffs during the COVID pandemic with the schedule. We are excited and looking forward to Conference USA play."
Cara Consuegra, head coach for women’s basketball, said. “I fully support the decision to adopt the Health and Safety schedule for the upcoming Conference USA basketball season. We have a responsibility to put our players and teams in the best position to play this season while keeping everyone as safe as possible. I believe this scheduling model does just that."
Home games
Men's basketball begins league play against WKU in Halton Arena (Dec. 31 and Jan. 2). The 49ers will also play UAB (Jan. 14 and 16), FIU (Jan. 28 and 30), Old Dominion (Wednesday, Feb. 10) and UTSA (Feb. 18 and 20) in Halton Arena.
Women's basketball will host four opponents, on alternating weekends, starting with Marshall visiting Halton Arena (Jan. 7 and 9). Florida Atlantic heads to the Queen City (Jan. 21 and 23). February opens with home matchups with Middle Tennessee (Feb. 4 and 6) before the single home contest vs. Old Dominion (Feb. 13). The final homestand of the regular season is slated for (Feb. 25 and 27) when the Niners play host to UTEP.
Road contests
In its first two league road games, men's basketball plays at Marshall, Jan. 7 and 9. Charlotte will play road games at Florida Atlantic (Jan. 21 and 23), Middle Tennessee (Feb. 4 and 6), Old Dominion (Feb. 13) and UTEP (Feb. 25 and 27) to close the regular season.
Women's basketball hits the road to begin the league calendar, facing WKU Dec. 31 and Jan. 2, before making journeys to UAB (Jan. 14 and 16), FIU (Jan. 28 and 30), Old Dominion (Feb. 11) and UTSA (Feb. 18 and 20).
All schools will have the final week of the regular season (March 4-6) available to make up any previous postponements.
Conference tournament
The league championship is returning to its familiar 12-team event for men's and women's basketball, similar to what has been in place for the past several seasons. The top-12 regular-season qualifiers will advance to the tournament, slated for March 10-13, in Frisco, Texas.
At this point, attendance protocols, which will be based on state and local guidelines, have not been established. Game times and ticket information will be announced at a later date. Both the men's and women's programs are in the process of finalizing their non-conference schedules.