Scott Martin and the Fighting Irish will play an 18-game BIG EAST schedule.

BIG EAST Announces 2012-13 Men's Basketball Schedule Matchups

June 28, 2012

View full release from BIG EAST Conference

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The BIG EAST Conference on Thursday announced the league opponents and game sites for its men’s basketball teams for the 2012-13 season. All 15 league squads will play an 18-game regular-season schedule. Each team will face 10 opponents once and four opponents twice.

Notre Dame’s repeat opponents are Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville and St. John’s. The Fighting Irish also will play host to Connecticut, Georgetown, Rutgers, Seton Hall and Villanova. In addition to the repeat opponents, the Irish will have trips to Marquette, Pittsburgh, Providence, USF and Syracuse on their docket

The full 2012-13 conference slate with dates and times will be announced at a later date.

The conference schedule – which comprises 135 regular-season games – will once again yield some of the most-anticipated contests nationally in 2012-13. Nearly 80 percent of the regular-season league games (107 of 135) will include at least one team that reached the NCAA Championship last season. Thirty-seven games (27 percent) will be between two NCAA tournament teams from 2012.

Additionally, each of the 15 BIG EAST teams will play either nine or 10 of its 18 league games against NCAA tournament teams. All 135 regular-season conference games will again be televised, either by the ESPN family of networks or CBS Sports.

The decisions regarding repeat opponents are driven by fairness and competitive balance within the parameters of television selections and geographic rivalries.

This is the sixth straight year the BIG EAST will use an 18-game regular-season league slate. The conference utilized a 16-game schedule from 1999-2000 until 2006-07.

Notre Dame is coming off a 22-12 campaign, which included a 13-5 BIG EAST mark. The Irish finished third in the league and suffered a 64-50 setback to Louisville in the semifinals of the BIG EAST Championship. Notre Dame has advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament in each of the last three seasons.

The Fighting Irish earned a berth in the NCAA Championship for the third straight season and fell to Xavier, 67-63, in the second round.

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