Vanderbilt Basketball to Play Six Buy Games in 2025-26

Vandy on SI learned that the Commodores have added five previously unreported midmajor opponents to their schedule

Tyler Tanner and Vanderbilt basketball have a few new opponents in 2025-26. | Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Vanderbilt will host Eastern Kentucky, Arkansas Pine Bluff, New Haven, Texas Southern and Central Arkansas in non-conference play, Vandy on SI has learned. 

Eastern Kentucky was ranked 187 in KenPom’s final rankings and Texas Southern was ranked 278 while Arkansas Pine Bluff and Central Arkansas were ranked outside the top 340. New Haven is entering its first season as a Division-I program. They’ll bring Vanderbilt to a total of six buy games. 

The Commodores also have previously reported games scheduled against Lipscomb–which will be the season opener–SMU, Cal, Memphis, Western Kentucky and Wake Forest. Vanderbilt will face SMU at home, Western Kentucky in the Battle 4 Atlantis and the other three teams on the road.  

Vanderbilt looks to build on a 2024-25 season in which it finished with 20 wins and its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2016-17. Head coach Mark Byington’s first non-conference slate as Vanderbilt’s leader saw the Commodores go 12-1 and put themselves in a position to become a tournament team with a favorable SEC slate. 

Byington told Vandy on SI earlier this summer that he planned to play fewer buy games than he did a season ago as his team played seven. 

Vanderbilt brings in a roster with just three returning scholarship players in Tyler Tanner, Devin McGlockton and Tyler Nickel. All three of which are expected to have significant roles on a team that possesses an eight-man transfer class headlined by TCU point guard Frankie Collins, North Carolina big man Jalen Washington, Washington wing Tyler Harris, Oklahoma guard Duke Miles and NC State guard Mike James–who hasn’t played since his days at Louisville.

Byington also added Jacksonville State transfer Mason Nicholson, Cornell transfer AK Okereke and Eastern Kentucky transfer George Kimble.

“The priority this recruiting season was to gain some more length, size,” Vanderbilt assistant coach Xavier Joyner told Vandy on SI over the summer. “We knew going into last year we were maybe the smallest team in the SEC regarding length, size so we wanted to upgrade that, which we did.”

Now Vanderbilt’s ability will be tested early in the season as it eases into things with six buy games before the dawn of the new year. The Commodores didn’t lose a buy game in 2024-25, which helped it significantly in the computer metrics, and will likely have to do so again in 2025-26 if it wants to head back to the NCAA Tournament.