The Pac-12 just dropped the 2026-27 women's hoops schedule for our Cougs, and honestly, it feels like the conference is finally settling into something that looks like home. We're not going to pretend this is the old Pac-12, that league is gone, but what's coming together in Pullman matters more than the name on the letterhead. The volleyball team already got their slate, as we covered in Bohler's Back in Business: Pac-12 Volleyball Slate Drops for the Cougs, and seeing both schedules land in the same window tells you something: the conference is serious about keeping these rivalries alive, even if the membership looks different than it did five years ago.
Our take is simple: this schedule is a vote of confidence for Kamie Ethridge and the program she's built. The Cougs have been competitive in a league that keeps shifting under them, and now they get a full run of games against schools that know what it means to play in Beasley. That's not nothing. When you look at how Pullman showed up for the football team this fall, two quick strikes before the break were all Pullman needed to lock in a win, as we wrote in Two quick strikes before the break were all Pullman needed, you see the same energy that fills Bohler on a good night. The town shows out when the product is worth showing out for. This schedule gives them plenty of chances.
What we're watching for is how the non-conference portion shapes up. The Pac-12 slate is what it is, you know the names, you know the gyms, but the games before that will tell us if this team has the depth to make a run. And here's the thing: the conference has already proven it can draw national attention. Remember when CBS came to town for Arizona? We wrote about that in CBS Gets a Palouse Throwback as Arizona Visits Pullman, and it was a reminder that Pullman still gets the call when the story is good. That same energy needs to carry over to women's hoops. The schedule is the easy part. Filling the stands on a Tuesday night in January? That's on us.
One specific takeaway: mark the home games against the old guard, the schools that have been in Pullman before and know what they're walking into. Those are the ones where Beasley can be the difference between a win and a loss, and the Cougs need every one of them. The schedule is out. Now we find out if the team that steps onto the floor in 2026 is the one that keeps Pullman proud.