The Ohio Valley Conference has released the 2025-26 conference slate of games with each team once again playing a round-robin schedule of 20 games.
 
The top eight teams for both men's and women's basketball advance to the OVC Tournament on March 4-7 held once again at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.
 
Due to a scheduling conflict, the EIU men and women will both have a different starting date to their home schedules this year.
 
The EIU men will open the OVC season on Saturday, December 6 hosting Lindenwood at Groniger Arena.
 
The Panther women will open the OVC season on Thursday, December 18 against SIUE as the first game of an OVC home doubleheader at Groniger Arena.
 
EIU's women's team then hosts Lindenwood on Sunday, December 21 to close out their fall semester games right before the Winter Break.
 
All remaining contests will be doubleheaders with EIU opening the new year on January 1 at Southeast Missouri.  Additional road game dates are Jan. 3 at UT Martin, Jan. 15 at Little Rock, Jan. 22 at Southern Indiana, Jan. 24 at Morehead State, Feb. 5 at Tennessee State, Feb. 7 at Tennessee Tech, Feb. 10 at Western Illinois, Feb. 25 at Lindenwood and Feb. 27 at SIUE.
 
The Panthers remaining eight OVC home games at Groniger Arena are set for Jan. 8 vs Tennessee Tech, Jan. 10 vs Tennessee State, Jan. 13 vs Western Illinois, Jan. 29 vs UT Martin, Jan. 31 vs Southeast Missouri, Feb. 14 vs Little Rock, Feb. 19 vs Morehead State and Feb. 21 vs Southern Indiana.
 
Complete schedules for the 2025-26 seasons for EIU men's and women's basketball will be released in the coming weeks following the completion of non-conference game contracts.