2025-26 Schedule

[yoda]

No, it's not a dream matchup, but they wouldn't come for free, and I doubt our staff wants to play there. They only draw 1800.
I think almost every MVC school buys early season games, and at least they aren't Chicago State with a 360 NET,

 

[Da Coach]

It is crazy to me that we have to pay a MAC team to come play us, is this just because we didn't want to do a home and home?

$90,000 is a pretty standard price these days to pay for a "buy game". But you're right in that MAC conference teams like Central Michigan are not really that different than some MVC teams. Usually you see teams paying for buy games against inferior teams from low-major conferences that are happy to play one game on the road, take a loss, and take home a big check. But there is a reason CMU is playing buy games like this (see below)..

Central Michigan was 14-17 least year and 7-11 in the MAC. But their final NET rank was 219, which was worse than 10 of the 12 MVC teams. Only Missouri State (NET 245) and Evansville (NET 257) had a worse ranking than CMU. They fired 4-year head coach Tony Barbee and hired a successful Division II head coach from nearby Ferris State University, Andy Bronkema. He was 278-105 at Ferris State in 12 seasons, and competed in 7 D2 NCAA Tournaments. and won a D2 National Championship in 2018.

After the coaching change, all of their rostered players left and recruits who had committed asked to be released. So, Bronkema had to do a total rebuild. Of the 14 players listed on their 2025-26 roster, every one is new to Central Michigan.
3 are incoming freshmen
3 are transfers from other D1 schools (Michigan, IU Indy, & Tennessee Tech)
6 are transfers from D2 schools (3 from Bronkema's old school Ferris State, 1 each from Wayne State, Purdue Northwest, & Kentucky Wesleyan)
1 is a transfer from an NAIA school (IU-South Bend)
1 is a junior college transfer. (Kayden Nation from Peoria via Indian Hills CC in Iowa)

Central Michigan roster- https://cmuchippewas.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster

 

[yoda]

$90,000 is a pretty standard price these days to pay for a "buy game". But you're right in that MAC conference teams like Central Michigan are not really that different than some MVC teams. Usually you see teams paying for buy games against inferior teams from low-major conferences that are happy to play one game on the road, take a loss, and take home a big check. But there is a reason CMU is playing buy games like this (see below)..

Central Michigan was 14-17 least year and 7-11 in the MAC. But their final NET rank was 219, which was worse than 10 of the 12 MVC teams. Only Missouri State (NET 245) and Evansville (NET 257) had a worse ranking than CMU. They fired 4-year head coach Tony Barbee and hired a successful Division II head coach from nearby Ferris State University, Andy Bronkema. He was 278-105 at Ferris State in 12 seasons, and competed in 7 D2 NCAA Tournaments. and won a D2 National Championship in 2018.

After the coaching change, all of their rostered players left and recruits who had committed asked to be released. So, Bronkema had to do a total rebuild. Of the 14 players listed on their 2025-26 roster, every one is new to Central Michigan.
3 are incoming freshmen
3 are transfers from other D1 schools (Michigan, IU Indy, & Tennessee Tech)
6 are transfers from D2 schools (3 from Bronkema's old school Ferris State, 1 each from Wayne State, Purdue Northwest, & Kentucky Wesleyan)
1 is a transfer from an NAIA school (IU-South Bend)
1 is a junior college transfer. (Kayden Nation from Peoria via Indian Hills CC in Iowa)

Central Michigan roster- https://cmuchippewas.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster

Kayden Nation attended Limestone then went to Prep School - played for Eddie Mathews at Limestone & Gavin Sullivan at Mid-Pro Academy
Head Coach Andy Bronkema played basketball at Cornerstone University (a small Grand Rapids private university whose President was JOE STOWELL - but not our Joe Stowell) and his first coaching job was actually as a football assistant at Grand Rapids Community College.
(Also, I was a Cornerstone fan back then-see below)

 

[yoda]

One new game reportedly added to the known schedule-
Bradley will host Central Michigan as part of its 2025-26 non-conference schedule. The date is set for Saturday November 8th. The guarantee is $90,000.
Link

Updated-
Bradley 2025-26 schedule so far-
Nov. 8- Home game vs. Central Michigan
Nov. 24-26- ESPN Events- Terry's Chocolate - schedule to be determined
TBA- Home game vs. Washington State
TBA- Away game at Northern Illinois
TBA- Away game at San Francisco
20-game MVC Schedule- home & home with each of the other 10 MVC teams

The game Bradley plays at San Francisco will be played on Saturday November 15
at their 5,300 seat War Memorial Gym at the Sobrato Center


So the 2025-26 schedule as we know it thus far:

October 18, Saturday, 10am - Bradley Red & White Basketball Game at Renaissance Coliseum
Nov. 8- Home game vs. Central Michigan
Nov. 15- at University of San Francisco- War Memorial Gymnasium
Nov. 19- Home game vs. UMass-Lowell
Nov. 24-26- ESPN Events- Terry's Chocolate - schedule to be determined
Dec. 11-17- Final exams and end of 1st Semester
TBA- Home game vs. Washington State
TBA- ? Away game at Northern Illinois
20-game MVC Schedule- home & home with each of the other 10 MVC team
March 5-8, 2026 (Thurs-Sun)- Arch Madness, MVC Tournament in St. Louis

 

[64NIT]

Tennessee-Martin at BU on November 12:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1946352363251663209

 

[yoda]

Good find, NIT

"11/12 UT Martin at Bradley" -
they were 11-19, NET 291 last year, in 1st year head coach Jeremy Shulman's first season, but they did beat ISU.
Hopefully they'll be stronger this year. They have gone heavily into the import market to rebuild...
Their roster has 11 international players! (Serbia (2), Gambia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Romania (2), Portugal, Senegal (2), Slovenia, Lithuania)

 

[LittleBrave]

So 8 non-conf. game so far? Still need a few more...10 or 11 is a good number.
Last season we won the Thanksgiving tourney and went 8-2 in non-conf., which is normally good enough to get consideration for an At-large throughout the season.
But in this era, you can't lose more than 3 Valley games, as we found out.

 

[64NIT]

But in this era, you can't lose more than 3 Valley games, as we found out.

Actually, in this era, you can't lose the conference tournament.

 

[LittleBrave]

Actually, in this era, you can't lose the conference tournament.

Probably true 64NIT!

In this era, mid-major success is (probably in order):
Winning the conf. tourney to make the Big Dance
Winning the conference
Winning NIT games (which BU did last season)

I put more emphasis on winning the conf., but not necessarily when it's weak.
Last season saw a bit of a resurgence in Valley strength, so it woulda been really sweet to have taken over Drake for conf. reg. season champs. The 3-game skid put us out of contention...that can't happen this season, though I think winning 15 games (like BU did last season) will get it done with so much parity, and Drake (hopefully) leveling off to a middle pack team.

 

[yoda]

here's a recent MVC success-meter (current MVC teams only):

Since March of 2019, a little over 6 years ago and just after the last deep NCAA run by an MVC team-

Number of MVC Top-3 finishes: Drake 4, Bradley 3, UNI 3, Indiana State 1
Number of MVC Tournament Championship game appearances: Drake 5, Bradley 4, UNI 1, Indiana State 1, Valpo 1

Number of NCAA Tourney WINS: Drake is 2-4 with a First Four win and a First Round win, no other MVC team has any NCAAT wins.

The sad truth is that over the past several years only 3 teams in the MVC have been consistently successful - Drake, Bradley & UNI,
but none have had notable post-season success. I am happy Bradley is among the Top two consistently best teams and hopeful we can maintain that,
but someone in the MVC needs to made a big splash in the post-season.
It's happened before, 2006, 2007, 2013, 2018....but now there's a huge effort to push the midmajors out of the spotlight. We;ve just got to get it done regardless. We all we got...!

 

[LittleBrave]

here's a recent MVC success-meter (current MVC teams only):

The sad truth is that over the past several years only 3 teams in the MVC have been consistently successful - Drake, Bradley & UNI,
but none have had notable post-season success. I am happy Bradley is among the Top two consistently best teams and hopeful we can maintain that,
but someone in the MVC needs to made a big splash in the post-season.
It's happened before, 2006, 2007, 2013, 2018....but now there's a huge effort to push the midmajors out of the spotlight. We;ve just got to get it done regardless. We all we got...!

Man, that's not good! However last season was a bit better with Drake winning 1 game in the NCAA tourney and BU won 2 in the NIT...ISU-red won the 3rd-tier post-season tourney fwiw.

It's a big challenge to have success in the Valley with so much turnover each season. Bradley has by far done the best job at keeping guys season after season, which can be attributed to sustained success. It's also nice to follow BU athletes' careers for multiple seasons. That makes it special on senior night.

 

[yoda]

....with Drake winning 1 game in the NCAA tourney and BU won 2 in the NIT...ISU-red won the 3rd-tier post-season tourney fwiw...

yeah, but if winning NIT and no-name tourney games is the MVC bragging point, then you have stated kinda just what I did...
Mediocre post-season performances are not going to help argue for extra bids for our league.

Kudos to Drake for their recent successes, and their awesome 2024-25, but still - I was kinda hoping for something a little more in the post-season.

in the 2021 NCAA Tourney, Drake won a play-in game, edging out a 16-win team by a single point, then got clobbered by a 6-seed
and in 2025, they beat a 6-seed that was a 12-loss, 8th place SEC team, then got clobbered by Texas Tech.
They had some great seasons, but their NCAA appearances were unimpressive.

 

[yoda]

a guy who covers UMass-Lowell reports that Bradley will host UMass-Lowell on November 19, 2025.
They play in the America East conference, finished 6th last season, NET 247, overall record 17-15.
Their 2025-26 roster has only 3 returnees (only one played last year and he played just 3 games), 8 transfers & 2 HS recruits.

Update- 2025-26 schedule as we know it thus far:

October 18, Saturday, 10am- Red & White Game at Renaissance Coliseum
Nov. 8- Home game vs. Central Michigan
Nov. 12- Home game vs. UT-Martin
Nov. 15- at University of San Francisco- War Memorial Gymnasium
Nov. 19- Home game vs. UMass-Lowell
Nov. 24-26- ESPN Events- Terry's Chocolate - schedule to be determined
TBA- Home game vs. Washington State
TBA- ? Away game at Northern Illinois
20-game MVC Schedule- home & home with each of the other 10 MVC team
March 5-8, 2026 (Thurs-Sun)- Arch Madness, MVC Tournament in St. Louis

 

[Da Coach]

Will the MVC continue the policy they have had the last 4 seasons of scheduling one or two conference games a month earlier than the rest of the conference schedule?

In 2024-25, Bradley played at SIU on Dec. 3rd.
In 2023-24, they played two early games, at Murray State on Nov. 29 and home against Indiana State on Dec. 2.
In 2022-23, they also played two early games, at home against UNI on Nov. 30 and at Missouri State on Dec. 3.
And in 2021-22, they played one early game, at home against UNI on Dec. 1.

 

[houstonbrave]

It will be interesting to see the conference schedule. It will be a bit awkward with 11 teams. Each gameday (normally each Wed & Sat) one team will need to be idle during the conference season since we have an uneven number of teams.

 

[yoda]

In an outstanding bit of scheduling that should quiet the critics.....
Bradley plays St. Bonaventure on Nov 3 at 10am (Central Time) - in Rock Hill, South Carolina (neutral site) in the "Field of 68"
- an opening day, 12-team/6 game event held at two sites, Rock Hill, SC and Sioux Falls, SD.
St. Bonaventure is a solid A-10 team that was Top-100 in NET last year, 22 wins, They had wins over Northern Iowa, Dayton, at FGCU,
Providence, VCU, and ended up getting a bid to the NIT...


updated schedule as we know so far-

October 18, Sat. 10am- Red/White at Renaissance Coliseum
Nov. 3- 10am (CST) vs. St. Bonaventure in Rock Hill, SC in the Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon
Nov. 8- Home game vs. Central Michigan
Nov. 12- Home game vs. UT-Martin
Nov. 15- at University of San Francisco- War Memorial Gym
Nov. 19- Home game vs. UMass-Lowell
Nov. 24-26- ESPN Events- Terry's Chocolate - schedule TBD
TBA- Home game vs. Washington State
TBA- ? Away game at Northern Illinois
20-game MVC Schedule- home & home w/ea MVC team
March 5-8, 2026 (Thurs-Sun)- Arch Madness, MVC Tournament in St. Louis

 

[Stevezall]

Excited to see Bradley play a very good St.Boneventure team which was recognized as being in the March Madness top 144 teams. I wish The game was at home, but nonetheless Good mid-major competition for Bradley!

 

[yoda]

here's all the opening day matchups...
Unfortunately for Drake, they get a rather weak opponent, Northern Arizona, who were NET 248 last year.
Murray State''s opponent is Omaha, they were 160 NET but 0-7 against Quad 1 & Quad 2.

 

[Da Coach]

PJ Star's Dave Eminian just posted an article about this Field of 68 game-

Bradley basketball part of unique event on opening day of college basketball season

The Bradley Braves will play St. Bonaventure in the Field of 68 Opening Day Showcase on the first day of the new NCAA season Nov. 3, 2025.

www.pjstar.com

The games are slated to be streamed on the Field of 68 YouTube channel and on X.com-

The Field Of 68: After Dark

The Field of 68 After Dark is where College. Basketball. Happens! Join us every night at 11pm ET during the college basketball season!

www.youtube.com

Last year, they had the Field of 68 Showcase-
https://fieldof68.beehiiv.com/p/field-68-launching-new-opening-day-showcase-event
It was a little different. It featured 6 teams playing 3 games, all of them at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. One of the teams was SIU, who lost to Charleston 90-80.

I recall that ESPN started this trend with a 24-hour programming event they called the "College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon". It was 24 hours straight of college basketball games. It began in 2008 and ran for 9 seasons, but ended after the 2016 season.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1950209722595889599

 

[Da Coach]

Article from Bradley website-

Bradley men's basketball to play in Field of 68 Opening Day Event - Bradley University Athletics

Peoria, IL - Bradley Men's basketball to play in the Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon in Rock Hill, SC against the St. Bonaventure Bonnies. Bradley men's basketball

bradleybraves.com

Article from St. Bonaventure about this game-

Bonnies To Open Men's Basketball Season As Part of Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon - St. Bonaventure

The St. Bonaventure men's basketball team will open the 2025-26 season in the Palmetto State as the Bonnies take part in the Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon vs.

gobonnies.com