EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Men’s and Women’s Basketball has announced its Ohio Valley Conference schedule ahead of the 2025-26 season.
The OVC, which features an 11-team field, will have a 20-game schedule for the second straight season, allowing each conference team to play each other twice in a home-and-home series. The OVC has also had a 20-game league schedule from 2005-06 through 2007-08 and in 2020-21.
The 2025-26 Ohio Valley Conference features the same teams, consisting of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Tennessee at Martin, Morehead State University, Western Illinois University, Tennessee State University, Tennessee Tech University, Eastern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Southeast Missouri State University, Lindenwood University, and USI.
With the number of games, the schedule will begin before Christmas on December 18 and December 20. USI will tip off league play at home against the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on December 18 and against Morehead State University on December 20 from Liberty Arena, home of the Screaming Eagles. The OVC regular season concludes on February 28.
The rest of the OVC action at Liberty Arena features Southeast Missouri State (January 8) and UT Martin (January 10); a four-game homestand against Eastern Illinois (January 22), Western Illinois (January 24), Lindenwood (January 29), and SIUE (January 31); and the final home weekend against Tennessee State (February 12) and Tennessee Tech (January 14).
Following the Screaming Eagles’ OVC home-opening slate before Christmas, USI will ring in the new year on the road at SIUE (January 1) and Lindenwood (January 3).
After starting the new year at SIUE and Lindenwood, the remaining road schedule includes a Tennessee swing to Tennessee Tech (January 15) and Tennessee State (January 17), stops at UT Martin (February 5) and Southeast Missouri (February 7), and concluding the regular season with four consecutive road contests at Western Illinois (February 19), Eastern Illinois (February 21), Morehead State (February 24), and Little Rock (February 28).
The 2026 OVC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament is slated for March 4-7 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana. It marks the ninth consecutive year that the event will be held at the venue.
The USI Men’s Basketball squad finished the 2024-25 season 10-20 overall, along with a 5-15 mark in conference play.
The USI Women’s Basketball squad enjoyed another strong campaign in 2024-25 that saw the Screaming Eagles go 23-13 overall and 12-8 in the OVC, reaching the semifinals of the OVC Championship Tournament, and earning a second consecutive berth in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT). USI reached its first-ever Super 16 in the WNIT.
The 2025-26 season marks the first year in which USI is a full-fledged NCAA Division I member and eligible to compete in NCAA postseason championship competition.
All OVC games and home non-conference contests can be seen on ESPN networks, with the majority of games broadcast on ESPN+. Additional linear exposures on ESPNU and ESPN2 will be announced at a later date.
The USI Men’s and Women’s basketball non-conference games will be announced once the schedules are complete.
