Texas coach Vic Schaefer blasts SEC for back-to-back games vs. LSU, Gamecocks
Texas women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer is ruffling some feathers across the SEC heading into his team’s Thursday night road game against No. 3 South Carolina.
After Schaefer’s No. 2 Longhorns lost on the road at LSU on Sunday, the longtime coach accused his conference of having a “vendetta” against UT and said the fact his program must play back-to-back SEC games on the road at LSU and South Carolina “really has a stench to it.”
“There’s 16 games this year. I have to play South Carolina on the road this year as well as LSU, and I get them back-to-back in the same week,” Schaefer told reporters Sunday in a rant that drew thousands of views. “Make that make sense.”
He added: “It’s us against the world a lot of times, and we have to embrace that.”
Breaking down Schaefer’s schedule complaints
SEC women’s basketball teams play 16 conference games annually (eight home, eight away). Each team plays 14 opponents a single game at home or on the road and has one “rotating opponent” that it plays at home and on the road (that opponent changes every season).
Texas, formerly of the Big 12, joined the SEC ahead of the 2024-25 athletic year. In Schaefer and the Longhorns’ first season in the conference, Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks were their rotating opponent. UT also played LSU and Kim Mulkey at home last season.
This year, Texas’ rotating opponent was LSU, and the Longhorns also got a road game at South Carolina. Schaefer said he was “disappointed” that the SEC placed what he insinuated are the Longhorns’ two hardest conference road games back to back on their schedule, four days apart (Sunday and Thursday).
Sunday’s loss to No. 12 LSU was the first of the season for Texas (18-1, 3-1 SEC). The Longhorns will play South Carolina (17-1, 4-0 SEC) four days later. Schaefer ripped that scheduling setup postgame Sunday in Baton Rouge after being asked about the depth of the league.
“The league is hard enough as it is, but then to bless me and my group with that, it really has a stench to it,” Schaefer said. “And the common denominator is that LSU and South Carolina both played Georgia before they played me, and South Carolina was at home today. So, I’m disappointed. … I’m really disappointed in the league for putting our kids in that position.”
Schaefer, 64, previously the coach at Mississippi State, took aim at the SEC, the conference’s women’s basketball-specific administrators and his own school for not speaking up about what he saw as a major scheduling discrepancy at SEC spring meetings this past May.
The coach insinuated that Texas, as a new SEC member, might not be getting fair treatment. The Longhorns entered the conference last summer along with Oklahoma, also from the Big 12.
“I’m upset that no one said anything,” Schaefer said. “Yeah, it bothers me. Anybody, somebody, stand up for my team and my program. Anybody. There’s people in the office that are paid to run women’s basketball, and, again, I’ve seen it. But nobody said a word. So, it is what it is.”
Asked about rebounding from the LSU loss to face South Carolina, Texas guard Madison Booker agreed with her coach’s assessment.
“We have an off day tomorrow, then Tuesday, we’re back to work,” Booker said. “I mean, Coach said it: We’re not ready for Thursday. It’s still gonna come no matter what. We have to get ready. We have to prepare again, and we have to basically try to fix our mistakes.”
Schaefer: Texas frustrated but ready to play
Playing back-to-back road games against ranked opponents isn’t completely unheard of in the SEC. Tennessee women’s basketball’s radio announcer pointed out on X that last year, the Lady Vols played a road home at No. 7 Texas and a home game vs. No. 2 South Carolina back to back, and followed that with games vs. No. 6 UConn (home) and No. 6 LSU (road) shortly after.
“Vic must have missed last season ...” the announcer, Brian Rice, wrote in a post. “Welcome to playing in a real conference, Texas.”
Missouri women’s basketball will also play back-to-back road games against LSU and South Carolina this season. The Tigers play at LSU on a Sunday (Feb. 22) then travel to play the Gamecocks on a Thursday (Feb. 26), the same split as UT.
South Carolina won three of four meetings with Texas last year. The Gamecocks lost the first game in Austin, beat Texas at home later in SEC play and beat the Longhorns in the SEC championship game as well as the 2025 Final Four in Tampa.
This year, USC lost its first meeting vs. Texas in November (a non-conference game that was the final of the Players Era Championship in Las Vegas).
Schaefer said his team will be ready to roll Thursday, but he remains upset about how the SEC schedule broke for his program — and the fact LSU and South Carolina both played at home before hosting UT.
“There’s some things right now that bother me in regards to the schedule, but they don’t call me and ask me about it,” Schaefer said postgame. “I just get it. And unless somebody from my university stands up and says, ‘Hey, what in the hell is going on here?’, nobody does anything. And that’s my frustration.”
South Carolina WBB vs. Texas
- Who: No. 2 Texas (18-1, 3-1 SEC) at No. 3 South Carolina (17-1, 4-0 SEC)
- When: 7 p.m. Thursday
- Where: Colonial Life Arena in Columbia
- TV: ESPN2
This story was originally published January 12, 2026 at 10:13 AM with the headline "Texas coach Vic Schaefer blasts SEC for back-to-back games vs. LSU, Gamecocks."
