Big Ten women move to 16-game schedule

ROSEMONT, Ill. The Big Ten women's basketball coaches made a compelling case to reduce the number of conference games during the league's spring meetings this week.

Andrea Williams, an associate commissioner at the Big Ten, said Wednesday the regular season schedule will be reduced from 18 to 16 games, starting in 2016-17. Conference opponents have already been determined for the upcoming season and it's late to add two nonconference games.

The switch to 16 games still needs approval by the Big Ten Presidents and Chancellors, but administrators signed off on the format after meeting with the women's basketball coaches.

"They were very impassioned," Purdue athletic director Morgan Burke said Tuesday.

Last year, teams were asked to play an 18-game schedule over 64 days compared to the men, who played the same number over a 69-day period. The coaches emphasized student-athlete welfare and travel costs.

"The sessions were extremely productive," Williams said. "The coaches were able to lay out some of the differences that they have because of their compressed schedule. They have one less week to play because their conference tournament is a week earlier than the men.

"I thought the coaches and the administrators had a great dialogue what the compression factors are and type of impact it had on the student-athlete experience."

In eliminating two conference games, coaches are expected to add two more compelling matchups during the nonconference season.

The Big Ten schedule featured 18 games this past season, but teams played 16 games from 2010-11 through 2013-14.

The start date for this year's Big Ten schedule was Christmas Day, but the coaches recommended moving it a week later and eliminating one of the bye weeks.

"No one is playing on Christmas," Williams said. "That was just another defining item that they presented the administrators as far as being difficult to get all those games in."