On Wednesday, the American Conference released conference schedules for the upcoming men’s and women’s basketball season. Every team knew the opponents they would play in conference, but it was unclear until Wednesday when the Tigers would be playing those opponents.

Penny Hardaway’s team will start conference play on Wednesday, December 30 at FedExForum against East Carolina before heading to Tampa to play South Florida on Sunday, January 3.

Memphis will only play one conference game on a Saturday this season, and it will be against North Texas on January 23. Every other weekend conference game will be played on Sundays.

The Tigers will play Utah State in late February on Saturday, February 20.

The American conference’s broadcasting agreement with ESPN gives them slots on the ESPN family networks during the week and on Sundays, and the conference has used those time slots for marquee teams and games during conference play. The Tigers also have to schedule around the Memphis Grizzlies’ schedule for home games throughout the season, and they only have three Saturday games throughout the entire season, with two of them being played at FedExForum.

Memphis will play Wichita State, USF, Charlotte, UAB, North Texas and Tulane at home and on the road. Hardaway’s team will play Tulsa, ECU and Rice only once at FedExForum, while they will play FAU, Temple and UTSA only on the road.

This will be the first year since FAU has joined the American that the Tigers haven’t played them twice during the regular season.

A few tip times were also released for some of the conference games, and it appears most of the Sunday afternoon games will be played at 2 p.m. CT. It feels like that should be a positive for the Tigers.

Memphis has played a handful of of Sunday games in the noon window, which makes it hard for fans who want to attend church and the Tigers game. A 2 p.m. start should give fans more flexibility to be able to do both on Sundays.

It’s hard to tell what Memphis will look like this season after bringing in 13 new players this offseason. Julius Thedford and William Whorton were the only two players to return from last year’s team that finished 13-19 and 8-10 in conference.

The Tigers added nine players through the transfer portal, three high school signees and a international prospect.

Memphis will play two exhibition games against Mississippi State and Arkansas before starting the year in South Dakota against Iowa State.

Memphis basketball’s full schedule:

Friday, Oct. 23 - @ Mississippi State (Exhibition)

Wednesday, Oct. 28 - @ Arkansas (Exhibition)

Monday, Nov. 2 - vs. Iowa State (6 p.m. in Sioux Falls, SD)

Saturday, Nov. 7 - vs. VCU (2 p.m.)

Tuesday, Nov. 10 - @ Vanderbilt

Sunday, Nov. 15 - vs. Louisville (2 p.m.)

Sunday, Nov. 22 - vs. Evansville (1 p.m.)

Wednesday, Nov. 25 - vs. Penn State (4 p.m.) (BATTLE 4 ATLANTIS)

*GAME 2 BATTLE 4 ATLANTIS*

Sunday, Nov. 29 - vs. Dayton (12 p.m. in Columbus, OH)

Wednesday, Dec. 2 - vs. Jackson State (11 a.m.)

Saturday, Dec. 5 - @ Baylor

Friday, Dec. 11 - vs. Grand Canyon (7 p.m.)

Wednesday, Dec. 16 - @ Texas

Tuesday, Dec. 22 - vs. Little Rock (7 p.m.)

Wednesday, Dec. 30 - vs. ECU (7 p.m.)

Sunday, Jan. 3 - @ USF

Wednesday, Jan. 6 - vs. Rice (7 p.m.)

Sunday, Jan. 10 - @ FAU

Thursday, Jan. 14 - vs. Wichita State

Sunday, Jan. 17 - @ UAB

Wednesday, Jan 20 - @ Charlotte

Saturday, Jan. 23 - vs. North Texas (2 p.m.)

Thursday, Jan. 28 - @ Wichita State

Tuesday, Feb. 2 - @ Tulane

Sunday, Feb. 7 - vs. UAB (2 p.m.)

Thursday, Feb. 11 - vs. Charlotte (7 p.m.)

Sunday, Feb. 14 - vs. UTSA

Wednesday, Feb. 17 - @ North Texas

Saturday, Feb. 20 - vs. Utah State

Thursday, Feb. 25 - vs. Tulsa

Sunday, Feb. 28 - vs. USF

Thursday, March 4 - @ Temple

Sunday, March 7 - vs. Tulane (2 p.m.)

Source: Yahoo Sports