Green Bay’s 2023/2024 non-conference schedule is nearing completion with contracts signed for 9 games so far for this upcoming season, according to a recent open records request.

These signed contracts – along with reports from non-conference schedule sleuth Rocco Miller – mean that with a 20 game Horizon League schedule, that leaves just one more non-conference opponent to be determined.

To unofficially get the 2023/2024 season started, Green Bay will once again host crosstown foe St. Norbert for an exhibition game on October 30^th.  The Phoenix squeaked out an ugly 50-45 victory last season in what was an unfortunate foreshadowing to a miserable season in which the team finished with a program-worst 3-29 overall record.

The season will get started for real on Monday, November 6^th when Green Bay takes on Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum in Ames to officially tip off the Sundance Wicks era.  GB will receive a hefty six figure guarantee to square off with the Cyclones, a team with several key figures with ties to the state of Wisconsin including head coach TJ Otzelberger, a Milwaukee native.  It will also be the first time Kimberly, WI native Jackson Paveletzke puts on a Cyclone jersey after transferring to ISU from Wofford this offseason.

GB has only faced Iowa State once in program history, a 74-57 Cyclone victory way back on December 4^th, 1986. 

The Phoenix return home on November 9^th to play the first of two games against non-Division 1 opponents when St. Francis (IL) comes to town.  It will be the first time the Phoenix will face multiple non-D1 opponents in a season since Linc Darner’s final season in 2019/2020. Green Bay will also host Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) on December 21^st.

On Wednesday, November 15^th, Green Bay will face the Valparaiso Beacons for the first time since they left the Horizon League for the Missouri Valley Conference in 2017. 

Like GB, Valpo is also a program in transition after firing their head coach after last season.  Since moving to the MVC the Beacons (formerly Crusaders) have struggled to reach the winning ways they had become accustomed to in their previous conferences and will look to rebuild under first-time head coach Roger Powell.

The game will be a one-off guarantee game instead of the start of a home-and-home series, a potentially winnable contest but certainly a nice chunk of change for the Phoenix regardless.

A two game, three team multi-team event (MTE) hosted by Montana State is up next for Green Bay as they will travel to Bozeman to face the hosts on November 20^th.  UC-Riverside is the other team in the event, replacing Southern Utah which had previously been reported to be participating.

On Saturday, November 25th, St. Thomas makes its first trip to Green Bay since 1971 and its first as a Division I opponent. It is also currently slated to be the first home game of the season against a Division I opponent.

The Tommies obliterated the Phoenix in the Twin Cities last season, 82-61, in their second year as a Division I program. That game was the first of a six-year home-and-home series that will see the teams swap hosting duties each year until 2027.

Speaking of home-and-homes, the Phoenix will start a home-and-home series with Western Illinois this season starting December 9^th in Green Bay. 

The Leathernecks – who moved from the Summit League to the Ohio Valley Conference this year – will also have a first-year head coach after their former coach, Rob Jeter, left to take over at Southern Utah.  The new man in charge is Chad Boudreau, a longtime assistant of Jeter’s at both UW-Milwaukee and Western Illinois.

Green Bay will travel to Macomb, IL for a return game next season.

The return game of the home-and-home series with UIC will take place in Chicago on December 12^th, according to a tweet from Miller.  The Flames, another former Horizon League foe that moved on to greener pastures in the MVC, knocked off the Phoenix 78-64 last season at the Kress Center.

Green Bay will face the Oklahoma Sooners in Norman on December 16^th in another buy game according to Miller.  OU will be playing their final season as a member of the Big 12 Conference this season before moving to the SEC for the 2024/2025 season.

It will be interesting to see what the program decides to do with the final non-conference game.  With three guarantee games already lined up – Iowa State, Valpo, and Oklahoma – will they go for another high major opponent for a paycheck?  Or perhaps start another home-and-home series with a regional mid-major?

Either way, it’s fun to start thinking about the schedule and the non-conference opponents as the season inches closer.

Update (8/3): Miller reports that Green Bay’s final non-conference opponent will be SIU-Edwardsville in the start of a home-and-home series. The Phoenix will travel to Edwardsville this season with the return game happening in Green Bay next year.

SIUE head coach Brian Barone was an assistant at Green Bay from 2010-2015, spending the 2014-2015 season as Brian Wardle’s associate head coach. He was in the running for the GB job when Wardle left for Bradley but the Phoenix ultimately hired Linc Darner over Barone and several others.

SIUE athletic director Andrew Gavin also spent five years at UWGB as an assistant athletic director.

Green Bay’s 2023 non-conference schedule: