2013-14 American Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Schedule

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – In its inaugural season, the American Athletic Conference will have 44 women’s basketball appearances televised nationally between ESPN and CBS Sports Network. Commissioner Mike Aresco announced the dates, times and television designations for the 2013-14 conference schedule, as well as a number of nonconference games that will be carried by its national television partners.

“The American Athletic Conference is one of the premier women’s basketball conferences in the country,” said Aresco. We have the defending national champion in UConn, runner-up Louisville and NCAA tournament participant USF. We feature many impressive teams as well as an outstanding roster of coaches. We have established programs rich in tradition as well as strong up-and-coming programs that will each make their mark. Our league will be extremely competitive and entertaining. We are pleased that industry leaders ESPN and CBSSN, which strongly support women’s’ basketball, will feature our conference games.”



American women’s basketball has a great deal of momentum after having two teams play for the 2013 NCAA title in New Orleans in April. It was just the fifth time that opponents from the same conference have matched up in the title game, and the second for the Cardinals and Huskies, who also met in the championship tilt in 2009. In addition to half the Final Four field and the national champion, the league also features a team that made it to the NCAA Second Round (USF), three teams that qualified for the WNIT (Memphis, Rutgers, SMU), a top-seeded team in its conference tournament last year (SMU) and two conference tournament finalists (Connecticut, UCF). Six of the 10 teams finished .500 or better last year and four teams finished with 20 wins or more, including Connecticut (35), Louisville (29), USF (22) and SMU (21).

The schedule is highlighted by a pair of matchups between defending national champion UConn and national runner-up Louisville, with both games televised on ESPN/ESPN2. The first rematch will be played on Feb. 9 at UConn, with the second played as part of ESPN2’s Big Monday lineup on March 3. The Huskies will be making their second appearance in a Big Monday game after they travel to Baylor on Jan. 13 as part of the lineup. Last year’s Conference USA regular season champion, SMU will be featured on ESPNU twice against the Cardinals. In addition, the Huskies will have five nonconference games televised on ESPN/ESPN2. Memphis will be featured against Louisville on Feb. 16 on ESPNU.

The CBS Sports Network schedule of American Athletic Conference games begins on Jan. 26, when USF, which made a run in the NCAA Championship, upsetting No. 7 seed Texas Tech before falling to No. 2 seed Cal by four points, plays at UConn. The Bulls previewed their role as challengers when they lost by only four in overtime last year to then-No. 2/3 ranked Notre Dame. Two days later, Louisville will play Rutgers on CBS Sports Network. The Cardinals and Scarlet Knights met once last year as the nationally ranked Cardinals (then-No. 15/13) squeaked out a win at home in overtime (66-57) on Jan. 8 at the KFC Yum! Center.

The first American Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Championship will take place March 7-10 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The March 9 semifinals will be televised on ESPNU and the final will be March 10 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN2.


American-CBS College Sports Network (CBS SN) Schedule   

January 26	USF at UConn	12:00 p.m.	CBSSN
January 28	Louisville at Rutgers	9:00 p.m.	CBSSN
February 2	USF at Louisville	2:00 p.m.	CBSSN
February 16	UConn at USF	4:00 p.m.	CBSSN
March 1	Rutgers at UConn	4:00 p.m.	CBSSN