Mississippi Valley State’s schedule has drawn national attention. For Mike Davis and the Delta Devils, the story goes deeper than 16 straight games away from home.
Mississippi Valley State will not play a home basketball game until Jan. 9. By then, the HBCU will have played 16 games, crossed the country, and faced some of college basketball’s biggest programs.
The road stretch could bring in close to $1 million in guarantee payments for an athletic department that needs the revenue. It also puts the work of earning those checks on a team trying to find its footing under a new head coach.
That is the assignment awaiting Mike Davis.
Valley’s first 14 games make up its entire nonconference schedule. All 14 are on the road. Two away games to begin Southwestern Athletic Conference play extend the streak to 16 before Prairie View A&M visits Itta Bena for the home opener. The list of hosts includes Oklahoma, Arkansas, Michigan, UConn, Mississippi State, Ohio State, Texas Tech and Baylor.
Why Mississippi Valley State takes the road
At larger programs, a visiting opponent can be part of the cost of filling out a home schedule. At Valley, the cost of that trip can represent a significant portion of the athletic budget.
The university has not released its contracts for the 2026–27 basketball season. The figure of close to $1 million is a projection, not a confirmed payout. But Valley’s reliance on guarantee games is documented.
In fiscal year 2025, the athletic department received $1,357,947 in guarantee payments across its sports, according to an analysis of NCAA financial data by Data Driven HBCU. That accounted for 24.4 percent of the department’s approximately $5.6 million in revenue.
The figure is for the full department in a previous year, but it shows why these games are central to Valley’s financial picture.
It also explains why the schedule cannot be judged only by the likelihood of an upset. Valley is working with a budget that leaves little room to forgo major revenue sources. The basketball team’s trips can help support an athletic department responsible for far more than one roster.
Still, a guaranteed payment does not make the travel easier for the players who earn it.
Valley opens at Oklahoma on Nov. 6, then heads to Washington, Oregon, and Oregon State. That is four games in eight days across three states. December brings Michigan and UConn a week apart, followed later by games at Texas Tech and Baylor on consecutive days.
For a new team, those dates leave little time to recover, practice, and correct mistakes. Davis has to prepare the Delta Devils for the next opponent while building the habits they will need when SWAC play arrives.
Mike Davis knows both sides of college basketball
Davis has coached on stages many of his new players will see for the first time. He took Indiana to the 2002 national championship game. He also knows how to win in the SWAC, where he led Texas Southern to four conference tournament titles and four NCAA Tournament appearances in six seasons.
His 2018 Texas Southern team earned the program’s first NCAA Tournament victory. Valley hired a coach with a record of turning conference seasons into something bigger.
Now Davis must do that work under Valley’s particular constraints. The schedule gives his players opportunities to compete against nationally known programs. It also makes it difficult to establish the rhythm most first-year coaches would want.
There is no need to pretend every stop on this trip is equally valuable for basketball development. A lopsided loss can reveal what a team must improve, but only if it has the time and support to act on its lessons. Davis’s challenge is to keep Valley’s season from being defined solely by the teams paying to host it.
The real measure comes in January
National attention may follow Valley’s road results, especially against the biggest names on the schedule. Those scores will tell part of the story. They will not explain why the games were scheduled or what the Delta Devils are trying to build through them.
By the time Valley finally hosts Prairie View A&M on Jan. 9, the guarantee games could have delivered meaningful revenue. Davis will be looking for a different return: a team that has stayed together, improved and is ready to compete in its own conference.
For Mississippi Valley State, those two goals have to coexist. The road trip helps fund the program’s present. What Davis and his players make of it will help determine its future.