The Arizona Wildcats received a logistically favorable path through the Pac-12, according to the weekend schedule pairs released today.
The Wildcats will open during the weekend of Jan. 2-6 by hosting Colorado and Utah and also close at home with ASU during the weekend of March 6. They'll play four of their first six conference games at home and big road trips to Oregon and Los Angeles will be spaced a month apart.
Exact dates and times for Pac-12 games won't be announced until late summer or early fall, though the weekend pairs allow fans to plan weekends.
Because of the Pac-12's unbalanced schedule, the Wildcats will not travel to Washington and Washington State, and won't host USC or UCLA.
This could be the last season the skips happen in a predetermined format, since the conference is considering an 18- or 20-game schedule that might be adjusted annually to prevent marquee matchups -- or games that could aid the conference's chances at NCAA Tournament bids -- from being skipped.
Last season, USC did not get a chance to host ASU or Arizona and did not receive an NCAA Tournament bid, and the league considered ways to avoid that scenario during meetings last May.
There's only one hole left on Arizona's 2018-19 schedule: An add-on game assigned by the Maui Invitational, to be played between Nov. 7-9 at McKale Center.
Add-on games allow teams to play the NCAA-maximum four games in a multi-team event when there are only three games assigned to the event's main bracket; an "MTE" counts as three games against the schedule maximum whether a team plays three or four games.
Here's how Arizona's 2018-19 schedule looks as of now (home games in CAPS, exact Pac-12 dates TBA):Β
Oct. 14 RED-BLUE GAME (scrimmage)
Oct. 30 WESTERN NEW MEXICO (exhibition)
Nov. 4 CHAMINADE (exhibition)
Nov. 7-9 MAUI INVITATIONAL ADD-ON GAMEΒ
Nov. 11 CAL POLY
Nov. 14 UTEP
Nov. 19-21 Maui Invitational
Arizona, Auburn, Duke, Gonzaga, Illinois, Iowa State, San Diego State and Xavier
Nov. 28 TEXAS SOUTHERN
Dec 2 at UConn (Hartford)
Dec. 6 UTAH VALLEY
Dec. 9 at Alabama
Dec. 15 BAYLOR
Dec. 19 MONTANA
Dec. 22 UC DAVIS
Jan. 2-6: COLORADO, UTAHΒ
Jan. 9-13: at Stanford, at Cal
Jan. 16-20: OREGON, OSU
Jan. 23-27: at UCLA, at USC
Jan. 30-Feb. 3: at ASU
Feb. 6-10: WSU, WASHINGTON
Feb. 13-17: at Colorado, Utah
Feb. 20-24: STANFORD, CAL
Feb. 27-March 3: at Oregon, at OSU
March 6-9: ASU
