Mississippi Valley State is about to spend a lot of time away from home.
A lot.
The Delta Devils will open the 2026-27 men’s basketball season with 16 consecutive road games, meaning MVSU won’t play its first home game until Jan. 9, 2027, versus SWAC champion Prairie View A&M.
Naturally, the schedule has gone viral because it includes a host of Power 4 opponents, including NCAA champion Michigan.
Videos and social media posts have questioned how a Division I basketball team could go more than two months without playing a home game in exchange for paychecks.
But MVSU men’s basketball general manager Cyril White says the conversation is missing a major part of the equation.
Television exposure.
White addressed the viral reaction to the schedule on social media and pointed to the national platforms MVSU will appear on during the opening stretch of the season.
“Here’s the part that everybody’s missing.”
According to White, the Delta Devils’ early-season road games will include appearances on ESPN, FOX, Fox Sports, USA Network and SEC Network.
And White believes that exposure could put MVSU’s players and its corporate partners in front of an estimated 6 million viewers during those games.
“Six million eyeballs on our first-class athletes,” White said. “Also six million eyeballs on our jersey patch partner.”
That’s a different way of looking at a schedule that, on the surface, looks brutal.
Instead of focusing solely on the number of road games, MVSU is emphasizing the potential visibility those games can create.
For the players, that means opportunities to compete on national television against high-profile opponents.
For the university, it means putting the MVSU brand in front of audiences far beyond the Delta.
And for the program’s jersey-patch partner, White sees the television exposure as another piece of the value created by the schedule.
Sixteen straight road games is unusual.
There’s no getting around that.
But MVSU is betting that the visibility attached to those games can make the unusual start worthwhile.
White also emphasized that the nationally televised stretch represents only half of the season.
“We’re really excited about the opportunity that we created for our young men at MVSU,” White said.
