Texas fans hoping for a loaded nonconference slate at Moody Center are going to have to wait.
When Texas released its schedule Monday, the headline wasn’t a blockbuster home date in Austin. It was the opposite: the Longhorns’ biggest nonconference games are landing elsewhere, with neutral-site matchups in Texas, a trip to Louisville and a two-game tournament stop in San Diego.
At Moody Center, the schedule is much lighter on marquee names. Texas has eight home games against teams from the smaller conferences, and Memphis is the only major-conference visitor on the nonconference slate. Even then, the Tigers finished 13-19 last season and do not figure to show up in preseason rankings.
The Longhorns open Nov. 2 at home against Chicago State, then host Gardner-Webb on Nov. 5 and Grambling State on Nov. 9 to close out the first three-game homestand. The rest of the nonconference home slate includes Southern Utah on Nov.
19, Southern Indiana on Nov. 22, Jackson State on Dec.
8, Memphis on Dec. 16, Prairie View A&M on Dec. 21 and East Texas A&M on Dec.
Head coach Sean Miller said he gets why some fans look at that list and want more.
“What we try to do is put the best nonconference schedule together to help us get the highest seed in the NCAA Tournament, to make the NCAA Tournament, to put our team in the best position to advance,” Miller said last week before the official release of the schedule. “That's it.
With that, we also respect our fans, and we want to create home-court games where they feel like they're watching the best in the country. These marquee games, I would just say I ask for a little patience to get that right.”
Texas has not exactly been stacking power-conference opponents in Austin during nonconference play. Last season, North Carolina State came to town for the SEC/ACC Challenge, and Connecticut visited Moody Center in 2024 in a home-and-home series.
Before that, no other power-conference team played a nonconference game in Austin over the previous two seasons. The 2023 home nonconference slate was led by Rice.
Still, Miller believes the program is moving in the right direction, especially now that he’s entering his second season at Texas.
“It takes a couple turns of it to get your nonconference scheduling model where it needs to be and where you want it to be,” Miller said. “No. 1, you inherit games that were already scheduled, some of which you agree with, maybe some of which you don't agree with.
No. 2, you've never coached in the SEC before. I have a lot more familiarity with that conference, our conference, 18 games, the SEC tournament than I would have a year ago.”
He also pointed to a schedule that takes Texas around the state, including two of Texas’ three NBA arenas. The Longhorns will face Baylor in San Antonio and Miami in Houston.
“People that love Texas but can't quite get here as easily to Moody, we're coming to you,” he said. “San Antonio fans to watch the Baylor game.
We're playing there in Houston against Miami, Fla. Two great programs that historically have been really good.
Miami was great a year ago. Baylor, we know them.
So, I think that although we're not in Moody, we're still trying to appease our fan base. We're still trying to do what I said is the No. 1 priority, and that is, does this game make sense for us to get the highest seed to make the tournament and put us in a position to advance?
So, these marquee neutral site games. I think you notice there are more of them, and I think we want to embrace that.
“We're still working hard to get these home-and-away series that will be in Moody. And we have some great conversations moving forward, where I have no doubt there'll be more of those, not less of those, moving forward.”
Texas will also meet Georgetown and either UCLA or St. Mary's at the Rady Children's Invitational on Nov. 26-27 in San Diego. The nonconference road schedule wraps with a Dec. 1 visit to Louisville in the SEC/ACC Challenge.
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