BATON ROUGE – LSU men’s basketball, along with the Southeastern Conference, announced on Monday the non-conference and league games for the 2026-27 season, Will Wade’s first in his return to the head coaching position for the Tigers.
The schedule includes a minimum of 17 games against teams that were involved in postseason play a year ago plus an extremely rare Friday night SEC home game.
This year’s schedule gets an October start for the first time thanks to a new NCAA rule that allows teams to play three exhibition games against Division I opponents. The Tigers will travel to Lake Charles to play McNeese, where Coach Wade was the head coach for two seasons, on Oct. 8. LSU will be at home on Oct. 14 to face UCF, and then will travel to Tallahassee to meet Florida State on Oct. 24.
Not counting the Oct. 14 exhibition game, the Tigers will be in the Maravich Center for 19 regular season games.
The official season opener is Tuesday, Nov. 3, when the LSU Tigers host LSU New Orleans at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. LSU will have a home game on the night before the football game with Alabama, facing Texas Southern on Friday, Nov. 6, at the Maravich Center.
November also features a trip to Spokane on Nov. 14 to face Gonzaga at the Numerica Veterans Arena and two games to be announced in August in Palm Springs, California in the Acrisure Series (Nov. 25-26).
LSU’s non-conference home schedule features games with Queen’s College of Charlotte (NCAA last year) on Nov. 21; Wake Forest (NIT) in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Dec. 1; Hofstra (NCAA) set for Saturday, Dec. 5; and, High Point (31 wins and NCAA second round) on Dec. 18.
Also in December, the Tigers will play Houston, an NCAA Sweet 16 team in 2026, at Houston’s Toyota Center.
SEC play begins on Saturday, Jan. 2 and the Tigers are home the first two Saturdays hosting South Carolina and Tennessee (Jan. 9). LSU will also host Auburn (Jan. 23) and Texas A&M (Feb. 27) on Saturday as well.
LSU will be a part of a Friday night league game on Feb. 5 at the Maravich Center with the Tigers hosting Ole Miss. This will be LSU’s first Friday regular season SEC game since playing Georgia on Feb. 8, 1991.
As usual, the Tigers will play Arkansas and Texas A&M both home-and-away as the team’s regular double opponents with this year’s third home-and-away scheduled with Auburn.
Games listed with two dates will be played on either Tuesday or Wednesday nights to be decided by the league and its television partners. The slate along with game times and networks are expected to be announced in September.
Season ticket information is available through the LSU Athletics Ticket Office and online at LSUTix.net.
2026-27 LSU Men’s Basketball Schedule
(HOME GAMES AT THE MARAVICH CENTER IN ALL CAPS
* -- Denotes SEC Games; Tuesday/Wednesday dates and Times/TV announced in September)
OCTOBER
Thurs. 8 /At McNeese (Exhibition)
Wed. 14/UCF (Exhibition)
Sat. 24/At Florida State (Exhibition)
NOVEMBER
Tues. 3/LSU NEW ORLEANS
Fri. 6/TEXAS SOUTHERN
Mon. 9/LOUISIANA TECH
Sat. 14/vs. Gonzaga (At Spokane, Washington)
Wed. 18/ULM
Sat. 21/QUEENS
Wed. 25/At Acrisure Series (at Palm Springs, California)
Thurs. 26/At Acrisure Series (at Palm Springs, California)
DECEMBER
Tues. 1/WAKE FOREST (SEC/ACC CHALLENGE)
Sat. 5/HOFSTRA
Sun. 13/vs. Houston (at Toyota Center, Houston)
Fri. 18/HIGH POINT
Tues. 22/UL-LAFAYETTE
Mon. 28/WASHINGTON STATE
JANUARY
Sat. 2/* SOUTH CAROLINA
5 or 6/* At Alabama
Sat. 9/* TENNESSEE
12 or 13/* At Kentucky
Sat. 16/* At Texas A&M
19 or 20/* TEXAS
Sat. 23/* AUBURN
26 or 27/* At Arkansas
Sat. 30/* At Georgia
FEBRUARY
2 or 3/* VANDERBILT
Fri. 5/* OLE MISS
Sat. 13/* At Oklahoma
16 or 17/ * FLORIDA
Sat. 20/* At Mississippi State
23 or 24/* At Auburn
Sat. 27/* TEXAS A&M
MARCH
2 or 3/* ARKANSAS
Sat. 6/* At Missouri
10-14/SEC Tournament (Nashville, Tennessee)
