KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Wednesday, Tennessee men’s basketball released its full 2026-27 schedule with tip times and television designations. Rick Barnes enters his 12th season as head coach with 13 newcomers.
Nine of the 18 SEC games tip at 7 p.m. or later, and only two start before 2 p.m. Ten league games fall on Saturdays. Twelve tip times are still to be determined, but Tennessee could land as many as 14 conference games on ESPN or ESPN2.
The non-conference slate is built to test a roster that is almost entirely new. Michigan State comes to Food City Center on Nov. 17, and then the Vols head to Las Vegas for the Players Era Men’s Championship, where they open against Maryland.
After that comes the toughest three-game stretch of the nonconference: Florida State at home in the SEC/ACC Challenge, NC State at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville and a trip to Purdue. Thirteen of the 14 nonconference games are on the ESPN family of networks, with Purdue on FOX.
The Vols open their tune-up schedule Oct. 15 at home against Xavier and then visit Duke on Oct. 20 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. SEC play starts and ends against Vanderbilt, with a Jan. 2 home opener and a March 6 regular season finale in Nashville.
On Tuesday, Barnes spoke on the identity of his team at the moment.
“Well, I think we obviously are more guard oriented,” he said. “You know, you look at our team, we’re not as bulky as we were a year ago. But in some ways, maybe more physical, because we’re bigger on the wings, longer on the wings.
And I do think our frontline guys, even though they’re not bulky guys, they’re physical. And so we know we wanna get out and run. But we’ve always wanted to do that. We’ve never wanted to be a team to come down and have to grind it out on offense every time.
“We’d like to score as quickly as we can and not play against set defenses. But on the other end, we don’t want people to do that to us. We wanna guard them. So the identity is that, yeah, we like to score quick, but we don’t want you to. And we’ve got to rebound the ball more consistently. Last year, I think we led the nation in both offensive and defensive rebounding.”
Below is the full schedule for the 2026-27 season.
FULL 2026-27 SCHEDULE (all times Eastern and subject to change)
Oct. 15 – XAVIER [Exhib.] (7 p.m. on SECN+)
Oct. 20 – at Duke [Exhib.] (7 p.m. on ACCN)
Nov. 3 – WOFFORD (6 p.m. on SECN)
Nov. 9 – RADFORD (7 p.m. on SECN+)
Nov. 13 – TENNESSEE STATE (7 p.m. on SECN+)
Nov. 17 – MICHIGAN STATE (9 p.m. on ESPN2)
Nov. 20 – COASTAL CAROLINA (7 p.m. on SECN+)
Nov. 24 – vs. Maryland [Players Era Men’s Championship – Las Vegas] (3 p.m. on ESPN)
Nov. 26 – vs. Iowa State/San Diego State [Players Era Men’s Championship – Las Vegas] (1:30/9 p.m. on ESPN/2)
Nov. 27 – vs. TBD [Players Era Men’s Championship – Las Vegas] (TBD on ESPN/2/U)
Dec. 1 – FLORIDA STATE [SEC/ACC Challenge] (7 p.m. on ESPN2)
Dec. 6 – vs. NC State [The Bad Boy Mowers Series – Nashville, Tenn.] (7 p.m. on ESPN)
Dec. 11 – at Purdue (8 p.m. on FOX)
Dec. 16 – MOREHEAD STATE (8 p.m. on SECN)
Dec. 20 – MARIST (4 p.m. on SECN)
Dec. 29 – NORFOLK STATE (7 p.m. on SECN+)
JAN. 2 – VANDERBILT (2 p.m. on ESPN/2)
Jan. 6 – at Auburn (7 p.m. on ESPN2/U)
Jan. 9 – at LSU (8:30 p.m. on SECN)
JAN. 13 – MISSOURI (7 p.m. on ESPN2/U)
JAN. 16 – ARKANSAS (12 p.m. on ESPN/2)
Jan. 23 – at Kentucky (2 p.m. on ESPN/2/U)
Jan. 26 – at Texas A&M (7 p.m. on ESPN/2)
JAN. 30 – FLORIDA (8/8:30 p.m. on ESPN/2)
FEB. 3 – GEORGIA ( 7 p.m. on ESPN2)
Feb. 6 – at Missouri (1 p.m. on SECN)
Feb. 10 – at Oklahoma (7 p.m. on ESPN2/U)
FEB. 13 – KENTUCKY (4 p.m. on ESPN)
Feb. 17 – at Ole Miss (7 p.m. on ESPN2/U)
FEB. 20 – ALABAMA (2 p.m. on ESPN/2)
FEB. 23 – SOUTH CAROLINA (7 p.m. on SECN)
Feb. 27 – at Texas (6/6:30 p.m. on ESPN/2)
MARCH 2 – MISSISSIPPI STATE (6 p.m. on SECN)
March 6 – at Vanderbilt (2 p.m. on ESPN/U)
