INDIANAPOLIS – The Horizon League announced its 2020-21 men's and women's basketball conference schedules on Wednesday. The slate consists of 240 games, 120 each for men and women. All teams are scheduled to play a 20-game League schedule.
Teams will play one League opponent twice each week with games taking place on consecutive days at the same location. Schools will have five home weekends and five road weekends and will play 10 of 11 League opponents.
League play for the women's basketball season will begin on December 12 and 13, with Green Bay hosting Milwaukee. The men's basketball league season will get underway a week later Saturday, December 19 and 20, when Green Bay hosts the Panthers as well before heading to Wright State the following weekend.
In conjunction with the League's announcement to not allow fans at Horizon League games in the month of December, Green Bay has also decided to not allow fans for any of its nonconference games in November or December as well. The Horizon League Board of Directors will reevaluate these attendance changes at a later date, as will the University independently from the League decisions. The nonconference schedules for both the Green Bay men's and women's basketball teams are planning to be announced next week.
HORIZON LEAGUE SCHEDULE ANNOUNCEMENT
"We are pleased to announce our basketball schedules," said Horizon League Commissioner Jon LeCrone. "It has been a work in progress with input from a variety of stakeholders including our student-athletes, coaches, medical staffs, and sport administrators. This collaboration was guided by our fundamental commitment to protect the safety of our student-athletes, coaches, and other team personnel as we navigate competition in an unpredictable environment."
Guided by the principle of safety, the scheduling model was developed in consultation with the League's Return to Safe Play work group, athletic directors, senior woman administrators and faculty athletic representatives, with additional feedback provided by the HL men's and women's basketball coaches and student-athlete captain's council.
In addition, the Horizon League Board of Directors is overseeing League-wide safety protocols focused on consistency and clarity for all League competition. As part of these protocols, the Board of Directors determined that due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, all League games in the month of December will be played without fans. Team pass lists and complimentary tickets will also be prohibited in December. The Board of Directors will reevaluate these changes at a later date. Fan attendance policies for non-League games will be determined by each institution.
The men's League schedule begins on Dec. 19 and will run for 10 consecutive weeks, while the women's HL schedule will start on Dec. 12 and run for 10 weeks with no League games scheduled for Dec. 21-31. Both schedules will conclude on Feb. 20. All dates and matchups are subject to change.
Continuing a long standing partnership with ESPN, every Horizon League men's and women's basketball game will be available on ESPN's family of networks, with ESPN+ and ESPN3 home to live streaming of HL basketball since 2014. Full television information and start times will be announced at a later date.
The 2021 Horizon League Men's and Women's Basketball Championship is scheduled to culminate at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis. More information on the championships will be released at a later date.
ABOUT THE HORIZON LEAGUE
The Horizon League is an NCAA Division I athletics conference comprised of 12 member institutions located throughout the Midwest's major metropolitan cities. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the League and its members strive to be highly competitive athletically while committing to the total development of its student-athletes and creating a lasting impact on campus and in the community. For more information, visit HorizonLeague.com.
---GreenBayPhoenix.com---
