CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Southeast Missouri's men's basketball team will play 31 games, including 15 at the Show Me Center this upcoming 2024-25 season.
SEMO's non-conference slate is comprised of 11 matchups, eight of which are against NCAA Division I opponents.
The Redhawks begin the season with back-to-back road games at Missouri Valley Conference member Bradley (Nov. 4) and Southeastern Conference member Vanderbilt (Nov. 10).
Bradley went 23-12 overall, finished third in the MVC and made it to the MVC Tournament semifinals a year ago, while Vanderbilt finished at 9-23 and 13
th in the SEC standings.
SEMO hosts NAIA affiliate Crowley's Ridge College (Nov. 13) in its home-opener. Crowley's Ridge is one of three non-Division I teams making trips to Cape Girardeau this year. The others are NAIA member St. Mary's of the Woods (Dec. 15) and NCAA Division III Westminster (Dec. 29).
The rest of the Redhawks non-conference slate features games at Central Arkansas (Nov. 21), Lipscomb (Dec. 5) and former Ohio Valley Conference foe Murray State (Dec. 8), a neutral site contest against UNC Asheville (Nov. 22) in Conway, Arkansas and home matchups with Chattanooga (Nov. 17) and Kansas City (Nov. 30).
SEMO opens its 20-game OVC schedule at home prior to Christmas against Eastern Illinois (Dec. 19) and SIU Edwardsville (Dec. 21).
For the second-straight year the league membership includes 11 teams (Eastern Illinois, Lindenwood, Little Rock, Morehead State, SEMO, SIU Edwardsville, Southern Indiana, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, UT Martin and Western Illinois).
In 2024-25, the Conference schedule switches to a true round-robin slate of 20 games (after being 18 games a season ago). The OVC has also had a 20-game league schedule from 2005-06 through 2007-08 and in 2020-21.
With the increased number of games, the schedule begins before the Christmas holiday, with 11 games between December 17 and December 21. The regular season will conclude on Saturday, March 1.
The 2025 OVC Men's and Women's Basketball Tournament is slated for March 5-8 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana. It marks the eighth year in a row the event will be held at the venue.
Each OVC school is eligible to compete and win the OVC Tournament Championship, including Lindenwood and Southern Indiana, which are in year three of the reclassification process to Division I. Should a transitioning school win an OVC Tournament Championship, the AQ shall be awarded to the tournament runner-up. Should the runner-up not be eligible, the AQ representative shall be the semifinalist that had the highest remaining seed going into the tournament.
All Conference games and home non-conference contests can be seen on ESPN networks, with the majority of games broadcast on ESPN+. Additional linear exposures on ESPNU and ESPN2 will be announced at a later date.
