Two weeks after conducting a video media day for football, the Southland Conference is making a quick pivot back to tradition.

The league, which caught grief for the video event, will conduct an in-person media day to promote the upcoming basketball season. Even more interesting, after passing on hosting the football day in Lake Charles, the league’s coaches and officials will gather in the area for the basketball event.

The site for the event has yet to be determined, sources said. SLC Commissioner Chris Grant will be in the area today to try and finalize the site.

“I can definitely say it will be in Southwest Louisiana,” Grant said. “We are looking forward to being there and showing off the investments our schools are making in basketball in person.”

All 20 of the Southland’s men’s and women’s head coaches, along with selected players, are expected to be on hand Oct. 10 somewhere in the Lake Area.

In the past, the Southland has hosted football media days at a local resort with fairly good results.

During the event, eight new head coaches, five of them on the men’s side, will be introduced. That includes McNeese State’s own Will Wade, whose hiring in the spring sent shockwaves throughout the college basketball community.

The conference made the official announcement about its Basketball Media Day on Tuesday after two weeks of speculation. At the same time, the league released its men’s and women’s conference schedules.

The Cowboys will open SLC play at Texas A&M-Commerce on Jan. 6. The Cowgirls start two days earlier at Northwestern State.

This season the SLC will play doubleheaders on Saturdays. The women’s games will be played Thursday with the men moving to a Saturday-Monday schedule.

The decision to move the men’s games to Monday instead of leaving them as doubleheaders on Thursdays was for two reasons, sources said.

First, the league wanted to try and secure better officiating. Second, better exposure with less national competition.

“I don’t care when we play,” Wade said when he first heard of a possible shift. “I would play at 3 a.m. if we could get on television more.”

Wade will miss the first 10 games of the season to serve an NCAA-imposed suspension as a result of his actions in a national recruiting scandal.

Now that the schedule is official, Wade says he’s all on board.

“I think it will really help in us getting better officials,” Wade said. “Monday is the day with the least amount of games being played so we will be able to get more exposure as well. Those are good things for us and our league.”

As for the media event happening in the area, he’s happy not to travel.

“I’m glad it’s here,” Wade said. “It makes sense; we are geographically located in the enter of the league and we host the tournament.”

Meanwhile, the women’s schedule staying the same is good news to Cowgirls head coach Lynn Kennedy, though he will miss the doubleheaders.

“I like the fact that we are staying with the same days playing,” Kennedy said. “I wish it was still the doubleheaders because I like the excitement they bring, but I hope we can get some better crowds for us going later.”

Cowgirls home night games will be moved from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. this season.

Kennedy also said he liked the in-person event for at least one of the league’s media days each season.

“I think it is good for everybody to have that one time the league gets together,” Kennedy said. “Of course, I’m happy this one is in Lake Charles. It makes it easier for us.”

Kennedy said there is one change to the Cowgirls’ nonconference schedule. Their game at Baylor has been moved to Nov. 24 due to a scheduling conflict with the Bears. The game was originally scheduled for Dec. 20 in Waco, Texas.

McNeese’s first men’s home conference game will be against Southeastern Louisiana on Jan. 13. On Jan. 11 the Cowgirls will host Lamar in their league home opener.

The top eight teams in the men’s and women’s standings will once again meet in Lake Charles for the conference tournament. This year’s tournament is set to run from March 10-14. The winners of each tourney will receive the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Texas-Corpus Christi was last year’s men’s tourney winner while SLU won the women’s title.