Any word on who the Acrisure games will be against or the other Vegas game?
Right now it looks a bit weaker than last year. Not sure there’s a Q1 game on this schedule unless those 3 games have 1.
Utah Tech being invited back after punching Graves lol
They should be better next year too. They just signed a 4 star recruit.
That first Vegas game is part of the Jack Jones Classic. Like the Accrisure they probably know who they’re gonna play but can’t announce until the host announces them.
I believe McNeese State is also in the JJC so they agreed to play in Vegas after the JJC
1 Like
Hopefully the team to be named is a winnable Power conference opponent. Really want to see St Louis in the Acrisure too.
McNeese is a great opponent bc you know they’re going to win a ton of games, probably be Q2, yet they’re a team SCU should have a good chance to beat.
1 Like
Looks like maybe Loyola isn’t happening?
Or it’s moved. The WCC is staying at 16 conference games. Above @LucasLandon lists 14 official games. But teams can go up to a max of 32 games this coming season. Adding GCU gets Santa Clara to 31 games without subtracting LUC. So I’m guessing that it’s an addition with the LUC game moving to a different date. Or if it is a replacement, then Santa Clara still has 2-3 more opponents to announce, including the unnamed opponent in Henderson on 12/12.
Edit: Full schedule updated above based on what we know/is rumored.
2 Likes
Yes, for sure! Could totally be moved. Schedule is pretty awesome!
Been a slow 3 weeks! I would think the OOC schedule is coming soon
Broncos take on Murray State at the Jack Jones classic on December 12th in Henderson per Jon Rothstein
2 Likes
Rothstein has the Acrisure matchups: Nevada and Illinois State. Both are solid mid-major squads, though these matchups will not bring the attention that SCU’s game with SLU did last season. I’ll update the “master” schedule above.
There are still up to 2 games that SCU can add to the schedule. I think that one will be the return game against Loyola Chicago unless last year’s horror show made SCU just pay the penalty fee for cancelling the return.
According to Loyola’s Instagram post today, that SCU-LUC game isn’t happening anymore. They don’t have us listed on their schedule. Kind of a bummer since I was looking forward to seeing the Broncos in person here in the Chicagoland area!
So basically we have a St. Mary’s schedule and pretty much have to be near perfect against Q2-Q4.
It would be interesting to know if this was Sendek’s choice or no.
Could also be no one worthwhile wants to play SCU
2 Likes
Yup. Remember the stories last season saying that Miami (OH) tried to schedule more power conference opponents, but wasn’t able to? Schools like us can ask but they don’t have to accept. From a power conference teams point of view, I understand it; there’s not much upside for them.
The numbers don’t exactly make it easy either. 30+ conferences, but only a handful of power conferences. It would be hard to make sure every mid/low major was able to schedule a power conference game even if non conference scheduling was centralized instead of everyone essentially being independent.
1 Like
I think this is the best schedule we’ve played, am I wrong? I would love to see Power 5 schools but it just doesn’t seem obtainable.
For me it’s a little shy of last season because we are missing the equivalent game of at Xavier. But after beating down the Musketeers on their own court, it’s going to be extra hard to get that kind of game again. But this is not a vintage Randy Bennett schedule by a country mile. There is a wide gulf between playing decent to good mid-majors at home and playing good to great mid-majors in neutral environments or in the occasional home-and-home.
A Colorado judge granted an injunction against the NCAA allowing players from 2022 to get their 5th year of eligibility if they desire. This applies to Elijah Mahi if he wants to come back to SCU OR seek another school.
Nor sure he wants back to the Broncos but you can’t argue with the Pro coverage SCU gets…
We’ll see….
I think I read that any athletes had to have already put their name in the portal. Elijah may have. I know it’s been noted here that he did not enjoy the school portion.
Acrisure from St Louis and Minnesota to Nevada and Illinois State. Would love to know if that was Acrisure doing us dirty or Sendek’s preference.
Calling it a St. Mary’s schedule isn’t necessarily an insult. It also might be giving the SCU schedule too much credit.
Last year SMC played 2 Q1 non-cons, both power conf, both Ls. 4-1 vs. mostly road and neutral Q2 and then ran table vs. Q3 and Q4.
Their other Q1 games were 0-2 to SCU and 1-1 to Gonzaga. The Gonzaga win didn’t get them into the field, it got them a 7 seed. But without it, they would have been a 10 or 11 with little margin for error.
What we know of the SCU schedule for 2026-27, with last year’s quadrant
Q1 - Grand Canyon A (71, close to Q2)
Q2 - UNM H, VCU H, Nevada N, Ill St N (95, close to Q3), McNeese N (56, close to Q1)
Q3 - UNT N, Fresno H (153, close to Q4)), Murray N (105, could be Q2)
Q4 - Milwaukee H, Sac St H, Utah Tech H (176, close to Q3), Loyola? N
That looks like a weaker non-con than either SMC or SCU LY, and no Gonzaga in league to provide Q1 games.
Taking 2 of 3 from SMC plus going 6-1 vs. Q2 got SCU in the field. In essence, beating SMC twice excused the Loyola loss. Had other chances, like the mop kid in palm springs taking away a likely win over STL. But last year’s schedule had 8 Q1 games. This year looks like 1 maybe 2, plus whatever SMC yields. Very little margin for error in Q2-Q4 with that.
SCU basically needs to no worse than split with SMC, split GCU and McNeese Q1/Q2 borderline games, and could only lose 1 other Q2-Q4 game to be in for a chance at an at-large (which would mean losing another to SMC or a Q2-Q4 team, which would probably put SCU out of the NCAAs or the very end of the extended bubble).
SMC went 25-1 vs. Q2-Q4, and that’s pretty much what SCU would have to do. Maybe 2 losses. Probably not 3. Which is why I’d like to know whether it was Sendek’s choice or not.
1 Like
In talks with coaches and Admin at the BBF Meeting tonight, Here are the up to date changes. Loyola is out. Stanford exhibition moved to Stanford. Add home games against Dominican and Towson St at the start of the schedule. I didn’t get the dates, Game against UNT will be neutral site not yet determined
4 Likes