SPARTANBURG, SC ? The Southern Conference announced today that the league’s 11 Athletics Directors have formally adopted an 18-game conference schedule for men’s basketball, effective with the 2006-07 season.  This past year, North Division schools played a 14-game league schedule, while South Division squads had a 15-game slate.

The conference will continue to have a divisional arrangement comprised of five teams in the North Division and six in the South Division.

Starting next season, teams in the North will play each divisional member twice and cross over to face four teams from the South Division twice and two from the division one time.

In the South Division, teams will cross over to play four North Division foes on a home and home basis and face every divisional opponent twice, with the exception of two teams that will play each other one time.  The two South Division teams that play each other once annually will rotate on a yearly basis.

The SoCon will maintain its format of having a relative balance of a Saturday-Monday base for its home games, in addition to teams playing at least two of its final five regular season contests at home.