Virginia Basketball Releases 2012-2013 Schedule - Fewer "Cupcakes" Abound

Yes, we are headed into the heart of football season - but, remember basketball? It's another sport that we play. And today, the Athletics Department, which has seemingly been leaking the schedule out one game at a time, finally released the full slate of opponents for the 2012-2013 season.

Most of the list was old news. The ACC schedule was released a few weeks ago and we knew about big out-of-conference match-ups against Tennessee, Wisconsin, and the Preseason NIT. What we were waiting on was just how cupcake-y our cupcakes would be. The answer: not terribly so.

Last season, games against South Carolina State, Longwood, Towson, and Maryland - Eastern Shore, who all sported RPIs over 300, put a beating on UVA's strength of schedule. Remember, for those simple RPI calculations, you receive approximately the same amount of credit for beating a 30-0 team and an 0-30 team as you do for beating two 15-15 teams, though the first feat is surely the more impressive one. All teams play "tune-up" games; the key is to game the system by scheduling those teams that you'll be able to roll over without hurting your RPI. Yes, that's the sad world we live in.

The three new out-of-conference opponents we learned about were Wofford (RPI of 178 last season), Morgan State (286), and Mississippi Valley State (152). Additionally, we were placed in a Preseason NIT pod where we will see Fairfield (103), then (hopefully) the Delaware/Penn (154/105) winner at JPJ before (hopefully) moving on to Madison Square Garden.

Besides Morgan State, the only other team we'll see with a sub-200 RPI is Seattle (275), and we play no teams with sub-300 RPIs. Virginia did a great job of scheduling smartly, and it will be reflected in our computer rankings come March.

The full 2012-2013 schedule follows below the jump. Note that much of the time/TV coverage information is still to be determined.

Virginia 2012-2013 Basketball Schedule