Gonzaga’s Mark Few, Saint Mary’s Randy Bennett lobby for more days between WCC games

If Gonzaga coach Mark Few had his druthers, the schedule for the Zags’ and every other West Coast Conference team in action this week – and most weeks – would look different.

Same for Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett.

The WCC’s two most successful coaches are competitors on the court, but they agree that the conference should move away from its predominantly Thursday/Saturday game schedule as much as possible.

Gonzaga has four Thursday/Saturday weeks in conference play, including this week with Loyola Marymount up first at the Kennel, followed by a road game against Pacific, and next week when San Francisco and Pepperdine visit the McCarthey Athletic Center.

Of GU’s four Thursday/Saturday weeks, three are split weeks with one home game and one away or vice versa. Few said that doesn’t leave much time to prepare for the Saturday game, particularly when travel is required between games. It’s also tougher on players’ bodies compared to having an extra day between contests.

“The coaches in the league asked to play on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (instead of Thursdays) and not do the Thursday/Saturday, but sometimes it falls on deaf ears,” Few said last week. “But it makes for much better games and the players are rested. To have a Thursday/Saturday where you’re traveling after an 8 o’clock game is idiotic, basically.

“We don’t even have travel partners anymore, so I have no idea why we continue to do it. That’s what happens when administrators are making the call and not coaches who actually know what’s going on.”

The Zags, who are leaving the WCC after the 2025-26 season to join the reconfigured Pac-12 with Washington State, Oregon State and five Mountain West schools, are coming off one of their two Tuesday/Saturday weeks. They handled OSU 98-60 before falling to Saint Mary’s 62-58 in Moraga, California. GU closes the regular season at Santa Clara on a Tuesday, Feb. 25, prior to facing San Francisco at the Chase Center on a Saturday, March 1.

Gonzaga also has two Wednesday/Saturday weeks. One is in the books with home wins over San Diego and Washington State. The next one includes a visit to Washington State on Feb. 19 before the rematch against Saint Mary’s in the Kennel on Feb. 22.

The conference-leading Gaels make the short drive to face San Francisco on Thursday before traveling to face Oregon State on Saturday. The Gaels have had two Tuesday WCC games and two on Wednesdays.

“I would like us to be Wednesday/Saturday,” Bennett said after Saturday’s win. “If you’ve got to stay an extra day on the road then so be it, but it gives you time to travel. We play San Francisco on Thursday, then we’re at Corvallis on Saturday and sometimes these games are early. I don’t know what time our game is at Oregon State (7 p.m.).

“Anyhow, it’s hard to get prepared, it’s hard on the kids, it’s hard on everybody, so I wish they’d go Wednesday/Saturday. If they need to go (Tuesday) every once in a while … our coaches said, ‘Listen, we’ll do it if it gets us good TV. If you can get on ESPN or ESPN2 or something like that, we’ll move a day, we’ll play Tuesday.’ Other than that, I kind of wish we could go Wednesday/Saturday.”

Television contracts obviously play a major role in formulating the WCC schedule.

The conference has added Tuesday and Wednesday games the last two seasons, but “the many years of playing Thursday/Saturday our conference has become recognizable for those days of the week and as such, our broadcast partners have requested many of our games to be played specifically on Thursdays,” said Aaron Woliczko, WCC senior associate commissioner for men’s basketball and sport administration.

There were three WCC games on Tuesdays and two on Wednesday last season and four on Tuesdays and three on Wednesdays this season. Gonzaga last year had one Tuesday conference game and one on Wednesday (vs. Portland, prior to a Saturday road win over Kentucky).

ESPN2 televised GU-Oregon State last week and the GU-WSU game on Feb. 19 will be aired on the same outlet. CBS Sports Network will show the GU-Santa Clara game on Feb. 25.

There are several challenges in attempting to add more Tuesday/Wednesday conference games, including limited television windows, ESPN’s NBA doubleheader Wednesdays and maintaining competitive balance for conference teams, Woliczko explained.

The WCC’s TV opportunities are usually 6 or 8 p.m. PT tip-offs with other conferences occupying earlier times.

Woliczko cited an example illustrating competitive balance parameters.

“So if we’re moving a game to Tuesday, than their opponents for Saturday would have to play Wednesday to maintain no competitive advantage,” he said. “It’s OK to have one extra day of rest (but not two).” 

Several power conferences generally follow a Tuesday/Wednesday and Saturday format, including the Big 12, Big East and SEC. The Big East and Big 12 occasionally holds conference games on Fridays and Sundays. The Big 12 also has prominent Monday matchups, including Iowa State-Arizona and Iowa State-Kansas the last two Mondays with Baylor-Houston, Arizona-Baylor, Houston-Texas Tech and Kansas-Houston scheduled over the next month.

The Big Ten staged at least one conference game every day from Jan. 2 to Feb. 2 and there won’t be many days off during February.

The addition of WSU and Oregon State as affiliate members puts the WCC at 11 teams, making scheduling more complicated than it would be with an even number. Gonzaga-WSU and OSU-Portland are obvious travel partners, but adopting a conference schedule with travel partners would leave one lone wolf.

“Our membership number and unbalanced conference schedule is not conducive to a travel partner format,” Woliczko said.