Iowa State Basketball Buy-Game Prices for Southern Miss, Southern Revealed

The Iowa State Cyclones paid a pretty penny for the Southern Miss Golden Eagles and Southern Jaguars to come to Hilton Coliseum.

Mar 22, 2026; St. Louis, MO, USA; Iowa State Cyclones head coach T.J. Otzelberger speaks during the postgame press conference after the game against the Kentucky Wildcats during a second round game of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Enterprise Center. | Jeff Le-Imagn Images

The Iowa State Cyclones men’s basketball team is going to have some tough competition to navigate during their non-conference schedule of the 2026-27 season.

Plenty of challenges await in neutral-site games with the Cyclones participating in the Players Era Festival, NABC Hall of Fame Classic and another trip to the Sanford Pentagon on the itinerary.

Looking to lessen the burden a little bit during the out-of-conference schedule, Iowa State will be hosting a few buy games at Hilton Coliseum. Essentially, those are games against lower-tier teams that are paid a fee to travel to your arena for games.

It is a common practice amongst Power Conference schools, and the Cyclones have revealed the date and cost for two of those games against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles and Southern Panthers.

Iowa State locks in dates, fee for Southern Miss and Southern buy games

Southern Miss head coach Jay Ladner watches action during an exhibition men’s college basketball game between Jackson State and Southern Miss at Lee E. Williams Athletics and Assembly Center in Jackson, Miss., on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. Southern Miss defeated Jackson State 81-71. | Ayrton Breckenridge/Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Those matchups will be played within a week of each other. Southern Miss is coming to Ames on Nov. 6, and it will cost Iowa State a fee of $115,000, per Henry Annen of Cyclone Alert, part of the 247Sports Network (subscription required).

The Golden Eagles finished the 2025-26 campaign with a 19-16 record, going 8-8 during Sun Belt play. As the No. 8 seed in their conference tournament, they went on a nice run, defeating the James Madison Dukes, Texas State Bobcats and Appalachian State Mountaineers before being defeated by the Troy Trojans.

That will likely be the Cyclones’ second game of the 2026-27 season. They will kick things off at the Sanford Pentagon against the Memphis Tigers out of the American Athletic Conference on Nov. 2.

The second confirmed date for a home buy game is Nov. 10 against Southern. The Jaguars will receive a fee of $105,000 for making the trip from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa.

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— Iowa State Men’s Basketball (@CycloneMBB) May 13, 2026

Southern went 17-17 overall this past season and 11-7 in the Southwest Athletic Conference. The Cyclones faced off with two SWAC programs during their non-conference schedule in the 2025-26 season.

They defeated the Grambling State Tigers 102-62 on Nov. 6, 2025, and the Alcorn State Braves 132-68 on Dec. 3, 2025. Both games were played at Hilton Coliseum.

The Cyclones’ home non-conference schedule isn’t just filled with buy games. They have an unconfirmed date to finish a home-and-home series with the Purdue Boilermakers.

The Big Ten contenders will be looking for revenge on Iowa State. In the Cyclones’ trip to West Lafayette to play at Mackey Arena last season, history was made in a 23-point blowout victory for Iowa State against the No. 1-ranked Boilermakers.