BURNSVILLE, Minn. – The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference announced Tuesday afternoon the 2021 women's and men's basketball schedules have been adjusted due to COVID-19.
 
The women's and men's basketball seasons, which are due to begin on Jan. 2, will now be adjusted to a single gender site schedule. To mitigate COVID-19 exposure, the NSIC announced last month that schools will only compete against one opponent each week of the season. The format will continue with the schedule released today.
 
The new schedules are tied to a COVID-19 testing cadence supported by the NCAA Sport Science Institute Resocialization of Collegiate Sport guidance.
 
The SMSU women's and men's basketball teams are scheduled to play 16 regular season games with 14 conference games versus teams from the NSIC South Division. Both SMSU teams will have eight home games during the season.
 
The format means the R/A Facility will host an SMSU women's or men's basketball each weekend starting Jan. 2 to Feb. 20. Game times, both home and away, will be announced at a later date.
 
The SMSU women's team will open the season on Jan. 2-3 hosting Minot State for two non-conference games, while the SMSU men's team will play two non-conference games at Minot State on Jan. 2-3.
 
The following weekend (Jan. 8-9) both SMSU squads open conference play with the men's team hosting Winona State, while the women's team will play at Winona State.
 
The NSIC Tournament will also change this season with an eight-team format instead of the traditional 16-team tournament. The top four teams in each division will qualify for the tournament which will take place Feb. 25-28 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.