CHICAGO – The Horizon League portion of the 2020-21 women's basketball schedule was released on Wednesday. The League will be following a 20-game format, with teams playing one another twice per weekend.

The 20-game conference schedule runs for 10 consecutive weeks from Dec. 19 through Feb. 20. Each team will have five home weekends and five road weekends on which they will play two games against the same opponent on back-to-back days at the same location. 
 
Grounded in health and safety considerations, the scheduling model was developed in consultation with the League's Return to Safe Play work group, athletic directors, senior woman administrators and faculty athletic representatives, with additional feedback provided by the HL men's and women's basketball coaches and student-athlete captain's council. It reduces travel, allows for additional time between games against new opponents, and provides for consistent and stringent COVID-19 testing in line with NCAA protocols to mitigate the potential for COVID-19 exposure.
 
Conference action gets underway on Saturday, Dec. 12, as the Flames will hit the road for a pair of games at Oakland. UIC will make its Horizon League home debut with Detroit Mercy on Dec. 19 and 20 before ringing in the new year on the road facing the League's newest members, Purdue Fort Wayne (Jan. 1 & 2) and Robert Morris (Jan. 8 & 9).

The Flames will return to Chicago to host Youngstown State (Jan. 15 &16) and Northern Kentucky (Jan. 22 & 23) before wrapping up January with a trip out to Wright State (Jan. 29 & 30).

The final month of the regular season begins with a pair of games at home against defending Horizon League Champion IUPUI (Feb. 5 & 6). The Flames will then take to the road one final time to challenge Green Bay (Feb. 12 & 13), before finishing the regular season at home against Milwaukee (Feb. 19 & 20).

With 20 conference games scheduled and 12 member schools this year, each team will miss one opponent on the regular season schedule. UIC will not face Cleveland State this year, marking the first time in the series history the two teams have not played each other in a given season since the teams' first meeting in 1983.
 
At this time, UIC will not host fans for home games at Credit Union 1 Arena due to current public health regulations. Flames fans can watch all women's basketball games on the ESPN family of networks, as in past years.
 
The 2021 Horizon League Men's and Women's Basketball Championships are scheduled to culminate at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis. More information on the championships will be released at a later date.

With the conference schedule now set, UIC's updated non-conference slate, beginning on Nov. 25, will be announced in the coming days.