The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team officially released its entire 2026-27 schedule on Tuesday.
Here are a few highlights from the 31-game slate:
1. New conference slate: The addition of Tennessee Tech to the league allows the Southern Conference to get rid of the “partner” system it had employed for years. The Mocs were always paired with East Tennessee State, along with Mercer-Samford, UNC Greensboro-Western Carolina and Furman-Wofford. The unbalanced number of teams doesn’t change the balanced schedule though, as teams will still play each other twice in a 16-game league schedule.
One other notable change is that the SoCon will now play women’s conference games on Saturdays and Tuesdays, as opposed to Thursdays and Saturdays that teams have played in recent years. The Mocs will start SoCon play on Dec. 29 at home against defending tournament champion Samford, the first time league play has started in December since the 2013-14 season. That same offseason the SoCon lost Appalachian State, Davidson, Elon and Georgia Southern to other leagues and added ETSU, Mercer and Virginia Military Institute. Neither VMI nor The Citadel sponsors women’s basketball, which is why the league has nine teams in the sport.
2. Non-conference tests: The Mocs start the season at home against Division II UVA-Wise on Nov. 2 and have a second Division II game against King University on Nov. 30, but have put together a solid schedule in total with a home game against Florida, a road trip to Alabama, games at McKenzie Arena against Lipscomb, Radford and Tennessee State and a three-game Thanksgiving multi-team event at Georgia State, where new guard Gabbie Grooms played last season. Also of note: Guard Caelan Ellis came over from Charleston Southern, which hosts the Mocs on Dec. 5.