Docket Digest 2026-01

Welcome to the offseason!

Congratulations to the Michigan Wolverines and Dusty May on winning the NCAA Tournament. 

This year I'll be attempting to consolidate scheduling updates into the written form on a weekly basis, and you're reading the first edition of this now.

Spring Cleaning has already begun and hopefully the 2026-27 Docket will be ready to go live when the first non-conference schedule is released. West Virginia had a strangle-hold on the first schedule release during the Huggins years, will they reclaim their place this offseason?

Schedule completion has taken a backseat to the transfer portal and roster building in recent years, with the first non-conference schedules coming out later and later. Just as chaotic as the transfer portal is the conference realignment portal especially this season. The resurrection of the PAC12 and ASUN/UAC split triggered most of the moves. I've attempted to capture all the changes and including my expectations for how that will impact the 2026-27 conference schedules.

Division 1 is expected to stay at 365 teams with Saint Francis-PA bowing out and West Florida stepping in. 

Conference Realignment

West Florida (Non-D1 >> ASUN)

Southern Utah (WAC >> Big Sky)

Utah Tech (WAC >> Big Sky)

Cal Baptist (WAC >> Big West)

Sacramento State (Big Sky >> Big West)

Utah Valley (WAC >> Big West)

Northern Illinois (MAC >> Horizon)

Hawaii (Big West >> Mountain West)

UC Davis (Big West >> Mountain West)

UTEP (C-USA >> Mountain West)

Boise State (Mountain West >> PAC12)

Colorado State (Mountain West >> PAC12)

Fresno State (Mountain West >> PAC12)

Gonzaga (WCC >> PAC12)

Oregon State (WCC >> PAC12)

Texas State (Sun Belt >> PAC12)

Utah State (Mountain West >> PAC12)

Washington State (WCC >> PAC12)

Tennessee Tech (Ohio Valley >> Southern Conference)

Louisiana Tech (C-USA >> Sun Belt); Pending Litigation

Austin Peay (ASUN >> UAC)

Central Arkansas (ASUN >> UAC)

Eastern Kentucky (ASUN >> UAC)

North Alabama (ASUN >> UAC)

West Georgia (ASUN >> UAC)

Denver (Summit >> WCC)

UC San Diego (Big West >> WCC)

Saint Francis (NEC >> Non-D1)

MTE Update

The Players Era Thingy has disrupted the MTE landscape, so many events are not locked in until later in the offseason. Maui is an outlier with it's field locked in and announced last year.

Maui Invitational

• Arizona
• BYU
• Clemson
• Colorado State
• Ole Miss
• Providence
• VCU
• Washington

Players Era Thingy

• Baylor
• Houston
• Iowa Sate
• Kansas
• Texas Tech
• TCU
• West Virginia 
• Kansas State

Schedule Beat

• Villanova and Notre Dame will tip-off the season in Rome on November 1st (Norlander)
• The 2026-27 Season will tip-off domestically on Midnight when High Point and Liberty face each other in Rock Hill (Release, Field of 68)
• Wes Miller's first game as Charlotte coach will be a road game at Indiana State (November 2nd) , a return game from this past season's opener. (Rosinski)
• Purdue and Gonzaga will open their seasons in Las Vegas on November 2nd, a double-header with Arizona & UCLA (Rothstein)
• Alabama will host St. John's in a return game to be played in Birmingham on December 12th (Zagoria)
• Vanderbilt's season will begin on November 2nd when they hose Bellarmine (Rothstein)
• Michigan and Marquette will begin a Home & Home in Ann Arbor next season (Rothstein)
• Indiana will host Syracuse in Indianapolis on November 9th. (Rothstein)
• Boston College and Massachusetts will meet at a neutral site in Boston on November 13th (Rosinski)
• Drake and Wichita State will play in Kansas City on December 18th (Rosinski)
• Shockers will visit Loyola Chicago on November 18th (Rosinski)
• Jerrod Calhoun shared on sports radio that Cincinnati has games against Clemson (Heritage Bank Center), at Dayton, versus Louisville (Freedom Hall) and will participate in ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando.
• Appalachian State will host North Texas in a return game from the 2024-25 season on November 20th (Rosinski)
• Fairleigh Dickinson get a return game from East Texas A&M on November 11th (Rosinski) and will visit Oklahoma in what is overwhelmingly likely to be a guarantee game (Miller)
• MAC Tournament champions Akron has return dates locked in for games against Tulane, December 5 (Rosinski), and at Bucknell, December 2nd (Rosinski)
• Georgia is hosting North Florida on December 29th (Rosinski)
• TCU is hosting Milwaukee on November 10th (Rosinski)
• North Dakota will visit Winthrop on November 7th as the two programs continue their 4-year series (Rosinski)
• Winthrop also will collect a couple of guarantee check for a visit to the Rocky Mountains, visiting Utah State on December 12th and Wyoming on December 14th (Rosinski)
• Oklahoma State will hos Oral Roberts on December 16th (Rosinski)
• Nebraska has four guarantee games in place: Le Moyne on November 2nd, Lindenwood on November 11th, Mount St. Mary's on December 17th and Fairleigh Dickinson on December 20th (Rosinski)
• North Carolina has five guarantee games in place: Western Carolina on November 2nd, Wofford on November 6th, Wyoming on November 10th, Marshall on on November 20th and The Citadel on December 21st (Rosinski)
• New Hampshire has two buy games lined up at Marquette, December 9th, and at Iowa State, December 29th (Rosinski) 

Contract Corner

A flurry of FOIA request have been sent out, primarily to power conference schools, and so far a modest handful of 2026-27 contracts have been acquired:

Virginia Tech

• November 3rd: Coppin State ($95k)
• November 27th: Old Dominion ($95k)
• December 10th: Maryland-Eastern Shore ($90k)
• December 21st: VMI ($90k)

Minnesota

• November 12th: Southern ($90k)