The University of Iowa unveiled its full women's basketball schedule for 2024-2025 on Thursday afternoon, finalizing a calendar of action that features six of its nine Big Ten home games on Sundays.
The full schedule is below, with home dates marked in bold, and full analysis below:
Wed. Oct. 30 - Missouri Western (Exh.)
Wed. Nov. 6 - Northern Illinois
Sun. Nov. 10 - vs. Virginia Tech (Charlotte)
Wed. Nov. 13 - Toledo
Sun. Nov. 17 - at Drake
Wed. Nov. 20 - vs. Kansas (Sioux Falls)
Sun. Nov. 24 - Washington State
Thu. Nov. 28 - vs. Rhode Island (Cancun)
Fri. Nov. 29 - BYU (Cancun)
Sat. Dec. 7 - vs. Tennessee (Brooklyn)
Wed. Dec. 11 - Iowa State
Sun. Dec. 15 - at Michigan State
Fri. Dec. 20 - Northern Iowa
Sun. Dec. 29 - Purdue
Wed. Jan. 1 - at Penn State
Sun. Jan. 5 - Maryland
Thu. Jan. 9 - at Illinois
Sun. Jan. 12 - Indiana
Thu. Jan. 16 - Nebraska
Sun. Jan. 19 - at Oregon
Wed. Jan. 22 - at Washington
Thu. Jan. 28 - Northwestern
Sun. Feb. 2 - USC
Thu. Feb. 6 - at Minnesota
Mon. Feb. 10 - at Nebraska
Thu. Feb. 13 - Rutgers
Mon. Feb. 17 - at Ohio State
Sun. Feb. 23 - UCLA
Wed. Feb. 26 - at Michigan
Sun. Mar. 2 - Wisconsin
ANALYSIS
First off, anyone expecting a regression into irrelevance in the post-Caitlin Clark, post-Lisa Bluder era received a rude awakening from the Big Ten, as Iowa will have a remarkable six home Sundays in its conference schedule alone.
Indeed, Iowa's most frequent day of the week on its schedule is Sunday, with 11 of the 30 scheduled games falling on the Lord's Day. That's prime TV real estate, both in the afternoon and evening, and it's especially convenient for out-of-town season ticket holders.
As for the games themselves, 14 home games is lighter than the 18 the men will play, but it's mostly killer, very little filler on the women's home slate. USC and UCLA will almost certainly be top-10 preseason teams, while the likes of Iowa State, Maryland, Indiana, and Nebraska should contribute to some volcanic atmospheres inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
If there's a downside to the schedule, it's that Iowa gets very few marquee road games in the Big Ten — until late, that is. A critical span in February sees the Hawkeyes at Nebraska, Ohio State and Michigan, with home dates against Rutgers and UCLA sandwiched in-between. Assuming Iowa is still in contention for March Madness at that point (Iowa is a preseason 8-seed, per ESPN), that five-game pocket will likely have significant impact on the Hawkeyes' seeding in Year 1 of the Jan Jensen era.
One more sneaky-critical stretch: December 7-15, where Iowa faces three consecutive teams also in ESPN's field of 68: Tennessee (10-seed), ISU (2) and Michigan State (7), with only the Cyclones coming to Carver. Iowa's offseason adjustment to its substantial coaching and roster turnover should be put to the test by all three teams.
All told, Iowa's schedule has 13 games against ESPN's preseason projected field of 64, with seven coming on neutral or road courts. If Iowa earns its way back into the Big Dance, it'll be one of the best-prepared teams in the field for hostile environments.
