Atlantic 10 builds flexibility into 18-game conference schedule

Bernadette McGlade had a hard time putting a number on how many different men’s basketball schedule formats the Atlantic 10 Conference examined in the past months.

“I need a calculator,” she said. “We easily had 10, 12, 14 different potential combinations of schedules. We did little pods. We did a big pod. We did a look at a bubble, bringing everyone to the same place. We kind of ran the gamut.”

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McGlade, who’s in her 13th season as A-10 commissioner, talked to reporters on Wednesday not long after the A-10 released a schedule — two months later than normal — that looks similar to its typical schedule. Teams will still play 18 games: nine home and nine away. They will, on average, play twice a week.

The A-10 considered playing a 20 and even a 22-game schedule this season. That would have lessened the burden on teams trying to fill non-conference schedules during the pandemic. They looked at the option of playing games on back-to-back days at the same site, which a number of conferences, including the Horizon League, are doing this year.

“Playing back to back at the same site from our national perspective didn’t seem like an optimal decision,” McGlade said.

In addition, McGlade said the league wanted to fulfill its contractual obligations with its national media partners — ESPN, the CBS Sports Network and the NBC Sports Network — so it built a schedule as similar as possible to past schedules. The A-10 didn’t want rivals, such as Dayton and Saint Louis, to play games on back-to-back nights. They wanted to space those games a month apart.

Where the schedule differs from past schedules is in its early start — Massachusetts plays at La Salle on Dec. 9 — and in its flexibility. Each team will have two bye dates between Jan. 13 and Feb. 24, and no games are scheduled for the weekend of March 5-7. The open dates will allow for make-up games in case of COVID-19 postponements.

There are still four games that don’t have a date. Dayton’s road game against George Washington is one of those games.

“We’re giving the teams involved in those games a little bit of time right now,” McGlade said. “I think it’s safe to say the non-conference schedule continues to be a little bit fluid. I would not be surprised if there is continued movement between now and Nov. 25. I’m confident we will be able to slot those games in, but at this point in time, the teams felt if they could have a little more time to see if everything does get locked down for non-conference, then they’ll have a little bit better idea of where to slot those games.”

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Dayton’s schedule features a soft start with three games against teams picked in the bottom five in the preseason poll: La Salle (Dec. 30 at UD Arena); George Mason (Jan. 2 at UD Arena); and Fordham (Jan. 5 in Bronx, N.Y.). The marquee game for Dayton, on paper at least, will take place Feb. 5 when it plays preseason favorite Richmond in Dayton.

Getting to that point in the season or through the season at all will be a challenge because of the coronavirus pandemic.

McGlade said league rules require athletes to undergo COVID-19 testing three times per week on non-consecutive days during the season, though some schools will choose to test more often. Some may test every day.

Athletes who test positive will quarantine for 14 days. The NCAA recommends whole teams quarantine if one athlete tests positive. That already happened to Fordham, which paused workouts and quarantined players and coaches on Oct. 30.

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The college basketball world has learned from college football this fall, McGlade said, in that there is very little COVID-19 transmission during competition. They’ve also learned there are going to postponements and that games may not take place on their scheduled dates. The A-10 is prepared to change schedules if need be and even shift the site of games if, for example, one campus is hit hard by a COVID-19 outbreak.

There also could still be conference games added to the schedule if the non-conference scheduling situation continues to deteriorate.

As for the other big question — will fans be able to attend conference games? — McGlade said schools will make that decision on their own.

“Most of those decisions are being dictated by the local community and local campuses,” she said. "We have some institutions that, as of Nov. 11, have zero-attendance policies. We have others that have 10 percent of their indoor capacity. We have one or two that are at 15 percent. We do not have any of our 14 institutions that have higher than 15 percent. We do know there is going to be a significant reduction in fan attendance.

Dayton Flyers 2020-21 schedule

Known non-conference games

Dec. 12: vs. Mississippi State, at Holiday Hoopsgiving event in Atlanta.

Dec. 19: vs. Mississippi, 2:30 p.m., NBC Sports Network.

A-10 games

Dec. 30: vs. La Salle.

Jan. 2: vs. George Mason, 4:30 p.m., NBC Sports Network

Jan. 5: at Fordham.

Jan. 8: at Davidson, ESPN.

Jan. 13: vs. Duquesne, CBS Sports Network.

Jan. 17: vs. George Washington, 2:30 p.m.

Jan. 23: at VCU, CBS Sports Network.