Big Sky releases 2023-24 basketball schedules; Weber State opens with Montana schools
The Big Sky Conference released its conference basketball schedules Tuesday for the 2023-24 men’s and women’s basketball seasons.
Weber State’s teams will begin their 18-game conference campaigns against Montana and Montana State in the customary final week of December.
Both teams are then scheduled for a break in conference play for their games in the Big Sky-Summit Challenge in the first week of January 2024. The men host South Dakota State on Jan. 3 and travel to Oral Roberts on Jan. 6. The WSU women are slated to travel to Western Illinois on Jan. 3 on host Kansas City on Jan. 6.
Western Illinois has announced it is leaving the Summit League for the Ohio Valley Conference; to date, the Big Sky and others have declined comment on if or how that move might affect the Big Sky-Summit Challenge.
Conference play resumes on Jan. 11. The full schedule is listed at the end of this report.
The traditional Big Sky schedule calls for games on Thursdays and Saturdays, though Monday games are now scheduled to allow for more space for nonconference games in November and December, and room to move the conference tournament up several days to provide better TV exposure and better rest for tournament champions ahead of the NCAA Tournament.
Weber State teams will play on two Mondays in the 2023-24 season: on Jan. 22 and in the finale on March 4. The men are on the road for both (at Montana and at Montana State) while the women stay home for the Monday contests.
Both teams get their “light week” (one game in a week instead of two, with no Monday game preceding or following it) much later than has been typical in recent seasons. That comes in the second-to-last week before playing Idaho State on Saturday, Feb. 24.
Both teams are also set for rare Leap Day contests on Thursday, Feb. 29.
Weber State teams avoid stretches of four games in eight days like were present last season, while getting two stretches of three games in five days capped by the two Monday contests.
Below is more on each schedule. Note that only the men’s conference schedule is listed in full; the women’s schedule is an exact mirror of the men’s schedule (when one is at home, the other is on the road on the same date).
WOMEN’S NONCONFERENCE
The WSU women have four known nonconference games: road games at Utah, Utah Tech and, if it’s still on, Western Illinois, with a home game against Kansas City.
MEN’S NONCONFERENCE
The Weber State men have six known nonconference games, which include home games against Cal Poly and South Dakota State, and a road game at Oral Roberts.
The Wildcats are also set to go to the Atlantic Slam on Nov. 16-19 in Moncton, New Brunswick, to play Colgate, Gardner-Webb and Yale.
MEN’S CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Note: Big Sky-Summit Challenge games are included in this list. The women’s schedule is mirrored on the same dates.
Dec. 28: vs. Montana
Dec. 30: vs. Montana State
Jan. 3: vs. South Dakota State (women at Western Illinois)
Jan. 6: at Oral Roberts (women host Kansas City)
Jan. 11: at Sacramento State
Jan. 13: at Portland State
Jan. 18: vs. Eastern Washington
Jan. 20: vs. Idaho
Jan. 22: at Montana
Jan. 27: vs. Idaho State
Feb. 1: at Northern Arizona
Feb. 3: at Northern Colorado
Feb. 8: vs. Portland State
Feb. 10: vs. Sacramento State
Feb. 15: at Idaho
Feb. 17: at Eastern Washington
Feb. 24: at Idaho State
Feb. 29: vs. Northern Colorado
March 2: Northern Arizona
March 4: at Montana State
March 9-13: Big Sky Tournament in Boise, Idaho