NEW ORLEANS - The Sun Belt Conference announced its 2019-20 women's basketball conference schedule on Wednesday.

Under first-year head coach Anita Howard, Georgia Southern will open up Sun Belt Conference play on Thursday, January 2, hosting ULM. Other home opponents for the Eagles include Louisiana (Jan. 4), Troy (Jan. 16), South Alabama (Jan. 18), Georgia State (Jan. 25), Little Rock (Feb. 6), Arkansas State (Feb. 8), Coastal Carolina (Feb. 20) and Appalachian State (Feb. 22).

Click here for the complete Sun Belt Conference schedule release, including all dates.

Tip times for conference games will be announced by each institution. Select game dates may be adjusted for live coverage on the ESPN family of networks. The conference's men's and women's basketball broadcast schedule will be announced prior to the start of the season.

The Sun Belt stays with an 18-game conference schedule for women's basketball for the fourth-straight season. The upcoming season's conference slate will keep a primary Thursday-Saturday format with league contests played against travel partners for two-game road trips to maximize rest, minimize travel times and limit missed class time.

The conference will once again employ a schedule format for its men's and women's basketball conference games to be played on the same days of the week but with games at different home sites per gender. The Saturday, January 25. date will be a Southern vs. State Rivalry Series doubleheader with the men's basketball team vs. Georgia State at Hanner Fieldhouse.

The 2020 Sun Belt Women's Basketball Championship will see 10 vying for the tournament title and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship. First-round games on Tuesday, March 10 and quarterfinal games on Wednesday, March 11 will be held on campus sites. The semifinals on Saturday, March 14 and championship game on Sunday, March 15 will be held at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds will receive byes directly to the semifinals, while the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds will each host a pair of first-round games and a quarterfinal game.

All nine games of the championship are slated for live coverage on the ESPN family of networks.

Georgia Southern returns all but one player from last season's squad, including second-team All-Sun Belt Conference guard Alexis Brown. Brown enters the 2019-20 season needing just 67 points to become the 24th 1,000-point scorer in Eagle women's basketball history. 

The non-conference schedule for Georgia Southern women's basketball will be announced shortly. Season tickets, however, are now available and can be purchased by visiting GSEagles.com/tickets.