From I-95 to the Organ Mountains: Inside Delaware’s transition into Conference USA

Another long road trip becomes a scavenger hunt for snacks, sleep, and self-help books.

For Wanzer, idle time rarely stays idle.

She hosts a podcast, The Baller Diaries, designed to help female athletes navigate the ever-changing world of athletics. She is working on her master’s thesis focused on designing swimwear for breast cancer survivors after surgery and she also freelances as a photographer and graphic designer, volunteers as a marketing intern, and serves as the NIL director for Delaware’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

Somewhere between boarding groups and baggage claim, she toggles between roles.

She has turned the grind into a silver lining. Along her collegiate journey, Wanzer has earned the opportunity to compete at a higher level, and she doesn’t take it for granted.

“I’m blessed to be able to play in a conference that’s this competitive,” Wanzer said. “The travel is hard. I’m not gonna lie. I’ve spent more time in airports this year than I ever have in my whole life, but at the end of the day, I’m just trying to enjoy the moment and be happy that we’re going to new places. I’ve never even been to New Mexico, so that was cool going there for the first time.”

---

Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women’s Sports Daily

We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women’s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women’s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!

---

Wanzer sleeps on every flight, guarding her rest. She reads constantly, often self-help titles like How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It’s her way, and her teammates’, of finding small joy in the middle of all those miles.

What Wanzer feels in terminals and at 30,000 feet is part of something larger.

The Why Behind The Move

Delaware athletic director Jordan Skolnick spoke at length over Zoom with The IX Basketball detailing the philosophy behind Delaware’s move from FCS and the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) to FBS and into Conference USA.

“When I arrived at Delaware, our focus was on being the best version of ourselves in the CAA—competing for championships and proving what a great institution this is so that, if opportunities came, we’d be attractive to other leagues,” Skolnick said. “As FCS exposure started to diminish and we felt we didn’t have a real voice at the highest level, it became clear that a university of Delaware’s stature needed a broader national platform.

“After a year-long evaluation of FBS options, Conference USA emerged as the right fit. …It helps us reach new markets beyond our strong DC-to-New York alumni base, and we’re already seeing the impact with more than a 20 percent increase in applications from Conference USA markets. It’s been a long time coming, but even halfway through our first year, it still feels like just the beginning.”

Delaware’s move to Conference USA has massively boosted its football visibility, jumping from under 100,000 total viewers last season to about 5.6 million this year, including 1.4 million for its bowl game victory. Delaware used football games against Colorado and Wake Forest as platforms to connect alumni, donors, and prospective students.

According to Skolnick, that surge in exposure is driving more season ticket sales, bigger crowds, higher student attendance, stronger campus engagement, and a level of national recognition the school says you “can’t put a price tag on.”

“The shift to ESPN+ has been a big win for us,” Skolnick said. “It gives Delaware a broader national platform than we’ve ever had before and makes it much easier for recruits and alumni to watch our teams play. The social media response has been incredible. … Around the bowl game and our national TV appearances, we saw more than 4 million impressions. That kind of online engagement amplifies everything we’re doing and keeps Delaware in front of people well beyond game day.”

‘Playing a higher caliber team every night’

The football visibility has helped the women’s basketball program even as it has stepped into a tougher league where the nightly competition is sharper, the exposure broader, and the recruiting map crosses time zones, the Rocky Mountains, the Mississippi River, and 12 states.

Conference USA has three programs among the top 150 NET rankings (Louisiana Tech 82, Missouri State 132, Middle Tennessee 146) compared to two in the CAA (Charleston 102 and Drexel 148). Delaware’s 212 NET is seventh in CUSA, but it would be fourth in the CAA. But it’s also an apples to oranges comparasion because of conference schedules.

The travel is also heavier. The preparation is more complex. Jenkins believes the miles will harden her team and that Delaware will ultimately win at a high level in Conference USA.

“This was a top conference in the country, and so it’s more competitive,” Delaware head coach Sarah Jenkins said to The IX Basketball during a phone call. “We’re playing a higher caliber team every night, and it’s good for us from a competitive standpoint. I believe this is a place where we could be successful, and we could really win.”

The results have already proved that. Despite early growing pains, the Blue Hens are more than holding their own after a 0-4 conference start.

Delaware women’s basketball team earned its first Conference USA victory, defeating Liberty, 76-69, at the Bob Carpenter Center on Jan. 17. Overall, they have won six of their last nine games, including a huge road 61-48 win at Middle Tennessee State, ending the Blue Raiders’ 39-game home court winning streak against conference opponents.

It felt like a breakthrough, proof that Delaware belongs.

“We believed our program deserved a platform where its success could be seen across the country, and the new league’s visibility, stronger competition, and expanded footprint give our student-athletes opportunities and exposure we simply couldn’t match before,” Skolnick said.

The transition accelerated faster than Jenkins expected. She knew it was coming, but she stayed focused on building her program. It was difficult to fully grasp the depth, athleticism, and coaching experience across the league until conference play began.

“You can watch film and evaluate teams,” Jenkins said. “But you don’t really know until you get in the thick of it and play to understand how good teams really are in comparison to what you’ve got and the way you’re building and your style of play. In Conference USA, I’m coaching against coaches that have been head coaches for 20 or 30 years, so it’s a different experience level as well.”

Bringing the Travel Channel to Life

That difference shows up not only in scouting reports but also on the map.

In the CAA, Delaware’s shortest trip was 44 miles to Drexel. In Conference USA, the nearest opponent is Liberty, 278 miles from campus.

“When prospects can turn on a national broadcast and see Delaware competing and winning against well-known programs, it validates everything we’re telling them about where this program is headed,” Skolnick said.

The contrast is visible in the travel itinerary. Consider the difference as Delaware brings the Travel Channel to life.

In the CAA, Delaware could take a direct flight to Charleston or Boston and drive to Hofstra, Stony Brook, Towson, Drexel, and William & Mary the day before a game. Travel. Practice. Settle in. Hotels were familiar. Postgame meals came from the same restaurants in Greensboro, Elon, and Wilmington, North Carolina.

Conference USA introduced a different rhythm.

From the desert air curling around the Organ Mountains in Las Cruces and wide-open roads to brick-lined Main Street in Newark and the congested hum of Interstate 95 traffic, Delaware’s new footprint stretches far beyond familiar ground.

The Blue Hens’ opening league road trip to UTEP and New Mexico State began with a bus ride to Baltimore-Washington International Airport, a flight to Dallas, then another to El Paso, a city rising out of the Chihuahuan Desert. They arrived the night before tipoff and stepped into a 4,000-foot elevation change from Newark, trading sea-level air for thinner desert altitude.

It was not just a trip. It was an adjustment.

“It took us 10 hours to get to UTEP, and it’s not a straight flight,” Jenkins said. “We’re in the airport all day. The travel has been very unique and different. It isn’t anything that we didn’t expect. It’s a different preparation, and it’s an obstacle as a coach that you know, my staff and I have to figure out how to coach through because we have to prepare kids to play games after being in the airport all day, and that’s hard.”

In Conference USA, travel isn’t a footnote. It’s a character in the story.

Bleary-eyed and backpack-clad, the Blue Hens have grown used to pre-dawn wake-up calls, long airport layovers and breakfasts eaten from to-go containers. When the ball finally tips, fans see only the game, not the miles it took to get there.

East Coast travel presented its own punishing grind for New Mexico State, with marathon days across time zones, limited practice windows, extended stretches away from campus, and added strain on players’ health and academics, all of which entail careful institutional planning and resources.

The Aggies made the same cross-country trek east last week, arriving in Delaware late Tuesday for a Thursday tip-off at 5 p.m. mountain time. The trip lasted from Tuesday through Sunday due to flight logistics. After playing Liberty on Saturday, they were unable to secure a return flight until the following day, turning a two-game road swing into a nearly weeklong journey.

“The travel is tough on our student athletes, and this is where you, as a coach, have to take care of them, mentally, physically, and obviously academically,” New Mexico State head coach Jody Adams shared with The IX Basketball postgame following its setback to Delaware. Adams was a member of Tennessee’s 1991 national championship team.

“We had practice at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday. We practiced for an hour and a half, so we left at 10:30, and we had an over 12-hour day to get here. We get in about 9:30, have a meal, and then practice here because the only time we could get on the floor was 10 in the morning. So, we get up after transitioning through two time zones. You just have to take what you’re given, right? We’re not big excuse makers or anything like that, and I’m not saying that, but I’m just telling you the kind of flow of the travel.”

The Aggies’ idling gray bus sat outside the damp loading dock following its 65-62 loss to Delaware, its tinted windows turning the players inside into silhouettes, long after many of the cars emptied out of the parking lots. You could make out the shapes of heads bowed and shoulders slumped against seatbacks as they balanced postgame meals on their laps while their knees were wrapped in ice.

It was the quiet after the grind.

By Friday morning, they were back inside of Delaware’s Bob Carpenter Center, zipping around the floor and practicing with revitalized energy before another bus ride for another flight, this one to Charlotte with a connection to Lynchburg, Virginia.

Aside from travel, another difference is that players in Conference USA are bigger and stronger, increasing the level of physicality. Delaware has adjusted.

Senior forward Ande’a Cherisier loves it. As Delaware’s leading scorer at 13.3 points per game, which is 10th in the conference, she’s able to bang in the post longer and fight for loose balls more. Cherisier is also third in the conference in field goal percentage (47.7%) and ninth in rebounding (7.8). She also has six double-doubles.

Delaware’s future is bright as freshman Kailah Correa has shined. She ranks second in points per game by a freshman with an 11.1 points per game average, which is 18th in Conference USA and second on the team. She’s also been named CUSA Freshman of the Week twice this season, becoming the first freshman since Jasmine Dickey in 2019 to earn multiple Rookie of the Week awards.

Also averaging double digits for the Blue Hens are Safi Kolliegbo, who scores at a 10.4 points per game clip, and Lay Fantroy, who is the cousin of former NFL running back Adrian Peterson, averaging 10.1 points per game. She was recently saluted for notching her 500th career rebound.

When asked for the key to the Blue Hens’ recent success, Jenkins was succinct.

“Confidence,” she shared after the win over New Mexico State. “We had a six-game losing streak, and that was hard. The players were flustered, but I am proud of them because they have found a way.”

For Wanzer, that confidence has been personal as much as collective. She has played in three different conferences, adapting each time.

After leading the CAA last year in 3-point percentage at 36%, she ranks sixth in Conference USA in 3-point percentage and is fourth in 3-pointers made per game. She scored her 1,000th career point this season against Akron. The seven 3-pointers she made that night tied for the second-most in program history, matching Elena Delle Donne in 2010, according to Delaware’s game notes.

Meanwhile, her life is expanding just as quickly. She is planning a wedding. She is building a career. She is building a future.

The travel is longer. The competition is sharper.

So is her sense of purpose.