Mississippi Valley State will play the hardest non-conference schedule in college basketball. If that is not brutal enough, the Delta Devils won’t play a home game until next year.
They are going to be on the road for the first two months of the season.
It is very possible, if not likely, that Mississippi Valley State begins the 2026-2027 college basketball season at 0-14. To win even one game during this 14-game stretch would be a great success.
Mississippi Valley State is awful at college basketball.
Established in 1950, Mississippi Valley State is located in the small town of Itta Bena, Mississippi— about halfway between Memphis and Jackson. The Delta Devils compete in the SWAC. Their men’s basketball program is not very good.
Sean Woods led Mississippi Valley State to its fourth 20-win season in program history in 2011-12 and reached the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in program history. It has been a dumpster fire ever since.
The Delta Devils failed to win 10 games in each of the last 14 seasons. They have not won more than five games since 2019. They are a combined 36-269 in the last decade. The 2023-24 season finished with only one win at 1-30.
College basketball coaching veteran Mike Davis was hired as Mississippi Valley State’s new head coach in April. He spent the last two years as an assistant at Memphis after serving as the head coach at Indiana, UAB, Texas Southern and Detroit Mercy. The former three-time SWAC Coach of the Year is back in the conference. It will be a successful first season if he wins 10 games.
The non-conference schedule will be miserable.
If the Delta Devils are going to win 10 games, they either need to win 10 of their 18 conference games or pull one (or more) of the biggest upsets in college basketball history. Their non-conference schedule is brutal.
Mississippi Valley State begins the year with 16-straight road games. It will play four games in seven days to begin the season against Oklahoma, Washington, Oregon and Oregon State. And then it plays Arkansas, New Mexico, Michigan, North Texas, UConn, Mississippi State, Tulane, Ohio State, Texas Tech and Baylor. That list includes both teams from last year’s national championship and eight teams that made the NCAA Tournament.
- 11/06 — @ Oklahoma
- 11/09 — @ Washington
- 11/11 — @ Oregon
- 11/13 — @ Oregon State
- 11/20 — @ Arkansas
- 11/25 — @ New Mexico
- 12/01 — @ Michigan
- 12/06 — @ North Texas
- 12/08 — @ UConn
- 12/15 — @ Mississippi State
- 12/18 — @ Tulane
- 12/22 — @ Ohio State
- 12/28 — @ Texas Tech
- 12/29 — @ Baylor
Assuming the Delta Devils will not return home between games, they will travel roughly 14,500 miles during the non-conference schedule for 14 expected losses. They could maybe pull an upset against North Texas or Tulane but probably not. Any other win during that 14-game stretch would be historic. It is not going to happen.
As brutal as it will be to start at 0-14, first-year head coach Mike Davis seems to have a plan. His team will get challenged by some of the best teams in the country before it begins conference play against lesser opponents and will presumably get paid a good chunk of money to do so. The only thing that matters is the SWAC championship. Non-conference losses won’t impact the present but the financial gain will impact the future in terms of recruiting.