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Texas coach Vic Schaefer unloads on SEC office over scheduling: 'They obviously have a vendetta'

FaceProfileby: Thomas Goldkamp01/12/26

In the middle of a pivotal two-game road swing against some of the top powers in women’s college basketball, Texas coach Vic Schaefer stopped to vent a little frustration. He’s not happy with the SEC schedule makers.

Texas dropped its first game of the season on Sunday afternoon, falling on the road at No. 12 LSU 70-65. That’s when frustration boiled over.

Schaefer was asked what it’s like to play in the SEC and how you navigate from game to game with so many teams ranked. It isn’t easy, he said.

“I mean two weeks ago this team that we just played was No. 5 in the country. It’s a bear,” Schaefer said. “They obviously have a vendetta against Texas, because not only have we started in the league and I get to play South Carolina twice last year, this year I get LSU twice, but I have to go, of 16 games, there’s 16 games this year and I have to play South Carolina on the road this year as well as LSU. I get them back-to-back in the same week. Now make that make sense.”

Indeed, Texas’ schedule is very difficult. The team recently played No. 15 Ole Miss, got a bit of a reprieve against Auburn, then faced No. 12 LSU and soon to be No. 3 South Carolina.

Schaefer was blunt that he thinks the scheduling did his program no favors. He was less than thrilled.

“The league is hard enough as it is. But then to bless me and my group with that, like it really has a stench to it,” he said. “And the common denominator is LSU and South Carolina both play Georgia before they played me. And South Carolina was at home today. So, I’m disappointed. I said that yesterday, I said it to TV. I’m really disappointed in the league for putting our kids in that position.”

Some might wonder about the wisdom of openly complaining about the schedule. Schaefer was joined on stage by players after the game, and they heard his take on things.

But he was unapologetic. And he also advocated that his squad will play whoever whenever.

“We play whoever’s in front of us, and the answer to your question is you’re right. It’s a bear,” Schaefer said. “It’s just one monster after another. It’s what Triple-A baseball is to the Major Leagues. That’s the way I look at it. You’ve got Hall of Fame coaches, you’ve got future WNBA players. It’s hard.

“But that’s what we all sign up for. That’s what I signed up for. I obviously came from Mississippi State, so I was obviously pretty used to the league and understood what it was. When you go to Texas, you’re not only signing up for the SEC, but you’ve got Texas on your chest and everybody wants a piece of you.”

LSU was the first program to land a death blow on Texas this season. The Longhorns are one of the top teams in the country, ranked No. 2 nationally.

The road doesn’t get any easier, though. No. 3 South Carolina is up next on Thursday night. The two teams previously met in the non-conference, with Texas winning 66-64.

If the Longhorns are to pull it off again they’ll have to regroup in a hurry. Schaefer knows it.

“It is what it is. I think, again, there’s some things right now that bother me in regards to, like I said, the schedule,” Schaefer said. “But they don’t call me and ask me about it, I just get it and unless somebody from my university stands up and says, ‘Hey, what in the hell is going on here?’ nobody does anything. And that’s my frustration, is that, I’ve waited. I’ve seen it. It’s been on my radar since spring meetings when the schedule came out. I saw it, and I waited for people that I thought should have stood up and said something. Nothing was said.

“I mean we’ve got people in the conference office that are just in charge of women’s basketball. You want to tell me that anybody else in our league gets both of these teams back-to-back on the road? Because they were both preseason No. 1, No. 2, No. 3. Both of them. They were preseason No. 3. One, two or three. But nobody did. I saw it, but I was hoping that somebody would. But didn’t get done. So this is what we’ve got. It’s fine. Like I told our kids all the time, there’s not anybody. It’s us against the world a lot of times, and we have to embrace that.”