Dawn Staley explains South Carolina’s non-conference scheduling strategy
Back in March, Dawn Staley went as far as to say she might consider changing how she builds future schedules after South Carolina women’s basketball was snubbed for the No. 1 overall seed in March Madness.
Yet when the Gamecocks’ 2025-26 non-conference schedule was released in August, it looked only marginally lighter from a competition standpoint. South Carolina is still playing in marquee matchups this upcoming season, but there aren’t as many as the year before.
South Carolina kicked off the 2025-26 preseason Monday with its first official practice. Staley met with reporters after the practice and said the game schedule was not a result of the NCAA snub.
“It wasn’t what I said. Scheduling is hard,” Staley said. “People don’t want to play us. Even having lost what we lost, it’s really, really a hard thing.“
USC will play Grand Canyon, Bowling Green, Clemson, Southern Cal, Winthrop, Queens, Duke, Texas or UCLA, Louisville, NC Central, Penn State, South Florida, Florida Gulf Coast, Providence and Coppin State in the non-conference slate this year.
Seven of those teams are coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance. In the 2024-25 season, South Carolina played six non-conference teams coming off an NCAA berth the year before.
The Gamecocks won’t play UConn in the regular season for the first time in more than 10 years.
The split between high-major and mid-major teams in South Carolina’s non-conference schedule also saw some change, but not a lot. The Gamecocks will play seven high-major teams and eight mid-major ones in 2025-26.
It’s the first time South Carolina will play more mid-major than high-major teams since the 2022-23 season. That being said, the split between high- and mid-major opponents in the last three seasons has varied. In 2024-25 it was 9-to-5, in 2023-24 it was 7-to-6 and in 2022-23 it was 5-to-8.
“Instead of the big competitive games, we’ve added some HBCUs, just to lift up every aspect of our sport,” Staley said.
South Carolina will play both Coppin State and North Carolina Central this season, two HBCUs that play in the MEAC conference.
The Gamecocks played Coppin State last year and will be traveling to Baltimore to play the Eagles this season. High-major programs, specifically perennial title contenders, such as South Carolina don’t typically play too many games on the road against mid-major teams, much less HBCUs.
“Not every team will go and play an HBCU on their home court,” Staley said. “And we feel like [it’s a] great game, great competition, great coaching. And if we can lift, because we play the game and get some notoriety to the HBCUs, then we’ll do that.”
South Carolina women’s basketball 2025-26 schedule
- Oct. 24 vs exhibition vs Anderson
- Oct. 30 exhibition vs North Carolina (at State Farm Arena in Atlanta)
- Nov. 3 vs Grand Canyon
- Nov. 7 vs Bowling Green
- Nov. 11 vs Clemson
- Nov. 15 vs Southern California (at Crypto Arena in Los Angeles)
- Nov. 19 vs Winthrop
- Nov. 23 vs Queens
- Nov. 26 vs Duke (at Players Era Championship in Las Vegas)
- Nov. 27 vs UCLA or Texas (at Players Era Championship in Las Vegas)
- Dec. 4 at Louisville (ACC-SEC Challenge)
- Dec. 7 vs NC Central
- Dec. 14 vs Penn State
- Dec. 18 at South Florida
- Dec. 20 at Florida Gulf Coast
- Dec. 28 vs Providence
- Jan. 1 vs Alabama
- Jan. 4 at Florida
- Jan. 8 at Arkansas
- Jan. 11 vs Georgia
- Jan. 15 vs Texas
- Jan. 18 at Coppin State
- Jan. 22 at Oklahoma
- Jan. 25 vs Vanderbilt
- Jan. 29 at Auburn
- Feb. 2 at Texas A&M
- Feb. 5 vs Mississippi State
- Feb. 8 vs Tennessee
- Feb. 14 at LSU
- Feb. 19 at Alabama
- Feb. 22 vs Ole Miss
- Feb. 26 vs Missouri
- March 1 at Kentucky
This story was originally published September 23, 2025 at 7:20 AM.
