American Athletic Conference announces scheduling model for 2016-17 and 2017-18
The American Athletic Conference has announced the women’s basketball scheduling model for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons and an 11-team conference championship bracket.
The league’s 11 members will play a 16-game schedule. Each team will play six of its 10 opponents twice, and four opponents once each – two at home and two away. The previous schedule format saw league members play an 18-game schedule.
Each school will play the same home and home opponents over the course of two years in the current model. The single play opponents will remain the same for 2017-18 with home sites flipped.
The 2017 American Women’s Basketball Championship will be played March 3-6 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.
The American Women’s Basketball Championship includes all 11 teams and will be seeded 1-11. The tournament will begin on Friday, March 3 with matchups between the No. 9 and No. 8 seeds, No. 10 and No. 7 seeds and No. 11 and No. 6 seeds. The winners will advance to meet the first, second and third seeds, respectively, on Saturday. Also playingon Saturday will be the No. 5 and No. 4 seeds. The top five seeds in the championship will receive byes into Saturday’s quarterfinal round.
The complete 2016-17 women’s basketball schedule with dates and times will be announced in August.
American Women’s Basketball 2016-17 home and away pairings:
| Play Only Home | Play Only Away | |
| UCF | UConn, Temple | USF, Tulane |
| Cincinnati | UConn, Tulsa | USF, Temple |
| UConn | Houston, Memphis | UCF, Cincinnati |
| East Carolina | SMU, Tulane | Memphis, Tulsa |
| Houston | USF, Temple | UConn, Memphis |
| Memphis | East Carolina, Houston | UConn, Tulsa |
| USF | UCF, Cincinnati | Houston, SMU |
| SMU | USF, Tulane | East Carolina, Temple |
| Temple | Cincinnati, SMU | UCF, Houston |
| Tulane | UCF, Tulsa | East Carolina, SMU |
| Tulsa | East Carolina, Memphis | Cincinnati, Tulane |
