McNeese Officially Announces 2025-26 Men’s Basketball Schedule

Lake Charles, Louisiana (KNGT-FM) - The 2025-2026 schedule is officially set for the McNeese Men's Basketball team, McNeese announced Wednesday.

The road to a third straight NCAA Tournament appearance is clear for the Cowboys and first-year Head Coach Bill Armstrong, but it will not be an easy task. The Cowboys' 2025-2026 schedule features non-conference road trips to take on Santa Clara, Michigan, and Rhode Island. The Cowboys will also host Louisiana-Lafayette on Nov. 14 and compete in the Cayman Islands Classic Nov. 23-25 against George Washington, Murray State, and Middle Tennessee.

A three-peat will certainly be on the mind of the Cowboys and their fans, but this year, the Southland Conference Basketball schedule has a bit of a change to it. The Southland has moved to a 22-game round robin format. The 12 Southland Conference teams will play 11 home and 11 away games, marking the largest number of contests in Southland Conference men's basketball history.

This year, McNeese will begin conference play on December 1st in San Antonio against UIW.

A lot has been made of scheduling for McNeese over the last few years as games continue to get harder and harder to come by for the Cowboys. The fact is, many high-major teams don't want to sign up to *potentially* lose a game they would have to pay McNeese to play in.

The Cowboys started that a few years ago by taking down Michigan in Ann Arbor, and then followed that up with narrow losses in 2024 to Alabama and Mississippi State on the road. The problem is, at this level, McNeese still needs those types of games to make it financially. Home games are even harder to come by.

So for now, McNeese ultimately has to settle for a pair of home games against non-D1 opponents, who can be no slouches. McNeese will likely eventually beat them, but they won't come as easily as one might think. Just ask last year's team, who trailed by double digits early...

On Wednesday Afternoon, McNeese Athletics officially released the 2025-2026 men's basketball schedule. Not much has changed since we gave fans an early look at the schedule just last week...

Get our free mobile app

2025-2026 MCNEESE MEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE

11/3 - vs Champion Christian
11/7 - at Santa Clara
11/10 - vs College of Biblical Studies
11/14 - vs UL-Lafayette
11/23 - vs George Washington (Cayman Island Classic)
11/24 - vs Murray State (Cayman Island Classic)
11/25 - vs Middle Tennessee (Cayman Island Classic)
12/1 – at UIW
12/5 – vs Northwestern St.
12/9 - at Rhode Island
12/12 – vs East Texas A&M
12/15 – at HCU
12/29 - at Michigan
1/3 – vs Lamar
1/5 – vs Stephen F. Austin
1/10 – vs Southeastern
1/12 – vs Nicholls
1/17 – at UTRGV
1/19 – at A&M - Corpus Christi
1/24 – vs UNO
1/26 – at Southeastern
1/31 – at Lamar
2/2 – at Stephen F. Austin
2/7 – vs UIW
2/9 – vs HCU
2/14 – at East Texas A&M
2/16 – at Northwestern St.
2/21 – vs A&M - Corpus Christi
2/23 – vs UTRGV
2/28 – at UNO
3/2 – at Nicholls
3/8–3/11 – Southland Conference Tournament (Lake Charles, LA)