Big South Announces 2026-27 Men's Basketball League Schedule
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – The Big South Conference revealed its 2026-27 men’s basketball composite league schedule Thursday afternoon. The 72-game slate begins on New Year’s Day 2027 -- Friday, Jan 1, and is a 16-game, double round-robin schedule to determine the 2026-27 regular-season champion.
The slate features two games a week over a 9-week span, and features four Wednesdays, four Thursdays, one Friday, eight Saturdays and one Sunday, with the regular-season wrapping on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2027. Teams have two open dates during the conference season, with the byes scheduled during each half of the season (Jan. 1-28, Jan. 30-Feb. 27). All schools will play each other during the opening month of the campaign, with the second game of the season series scheduled at least 14 days apart.
Four Thursday national television appearances on ESPNU -- Jan. 28 plus the final three Thursdays of the regular-season (Feb. 11, Feb. 18 and Feb. 25) -- will be Wildcard selections 14-21 days in advance and chosen from the slate of Thursday games scheduled that night.
Opening the league slate at home on Jan. 1 are Longwood (vs. Charleston Southern), Radford (vs. Presbyterian), USC Upstate (vs. UNC Asheville) and Winthrop (vs. Gardner-Webb). Two-time defending Big South Champion High Point will begin its Big South season at home against USC Upstate on Sunday, Jan. 3.
High Point, USC Upstate and Winthrop will start and end league action at home, while Charleston Southern and Gardner-Webb will open and close conference play with road games. The two meetings featuring last year’s Championship game participants -- High Point and Winthrop -- will be Wednesday, Jan. 20 (at Winthrop) and Thursday, Feb. 18 (at High Point).
The season culminates with the 2027 Big South Men’s Basketball Championship, which will be held at Freedom Hall Civic Center in Johnson City, Tenn., from March 3-7. The first round will be Wednesday, March 3, followed by four quarterfinal contests on Friday, March 5. The semifinals are scheduled for Saturday, March 6, with the Championship game on Sunday, March 7.
The 2026-27 Big South Men’s Basketball preseason poll and All-Conference teams will be announced at Media Day presented by Food City on Wednesday, Oct. 14. The Big South Men’s Basketball Conference schedule and team-by-team listings are
available here in .pdf format. Confirmed game times and television coverage will be available at a later date.