Report: Date set for Murray State vs. SMU
MBB: This is the return game from the 2023-24 meeting in Murray
The first piece of Murray State’s non-conference schedule appears to be set for the 2025-26 season, as the Racers will travel to SMU on November 11th, according to Made For March on X.
Murray State and SMU played the front end of their home-and-home series on December 22, 2023 at the CFSB Center. The second game in Dallas was pushed back a season, in part due to a coaching change at SMU.
This news kicks off our annual summer task of piecing together Murray State’s schedule for the upcoming season. The Missouri Valley Conference slate will be a little cleaner this year with 11 teams in the league, thanks to Missouri State’s exit to Conference USA. The 11 teams will play a true round robin schedule of 20 games. The conference schedule, if the usual timetable holds, won’t be released until mid-September.
With 11 non-conference games to fill, we know several of the opponents, just not the dates of when they’ll be played.
(Let me add a giant caveat to this entire scheduling conversation: This is the first year Ryan Miller is putting together a schedule for Murray State. How things have been done in the past may be done differently this year, so take all of this with a grain of salt until I can have a scheduling philosophy conversation with Coach Miller.)
There are several games, including some home-and home series, that are expected to be continued this year, but dates have not been confirmed yet:
Home vs. Western Kentucky (Year three of a four-year series)
Home vs. Middle Tennessee (Continuation of home-and-home series)
Home vs. Little Rock (Back end of a home-and-home series from 2023-24)
Home vs. Non-Division I
Multi-team event (Usually three games)
November 11 — at SMU
The games above would fulfill eight of Murray State’s 11 non-conference games. Questions on whether Miller will have the Racers play a non-DI game, whether they Racers will go play a guarantee game on the road, and how many guarantee games the Racers will host still need to be answered. For now, at least we have one puzzle piece to work with.