Lobos finalize hoops schedule, a look at Howl details, and NIT-picking new postseason format

It won’t exactly be Christmas in California for the UNM Lobos, but it’ll be close.

And it could prove to be one of the most crucial weeks of the Lobos basketball season.

According to college basketball scheduling guru Rocco Miller, UC Irvine and UNM are close to finalizing a game in California on Dec. 18 that would be the final game of UNM’s 32-game schedule for the 2026-27 season.

While the contract had not been finalized as of Thursday, and therefore not announced or confirmed by UNM, the Journal believes the hold up on that isn’t likely anything that will prevent the game from being played.

NEWS: UC Irvine is finalizing an agreement to host New Mexico at Bren Events Center on Friday, December 18th, per multiple sources.

The additional road game will provide the Lobos with three Southern California games leading into the Holiday break.#BigWest #MWC

— Rocco Miller (@RoccoMiller8) October 1, 2026

UNM already has Dec. 21 (vs. Oregon State) and Dec. 23 (vs. Boise State) games scheduled in the four-team SoCal Challenge in San Juan Capistrano, California — about 30 minutes from Irvine.

That means over a five-day span in late December, the Lobos get three expected, and highly-coveted, Quad 2 level games all without travel between the games and in a Southern California area where so many of the Lobo players and staff are from, affording plenty of opportunity to see friends and family around the holidays, again with minimal travel.

In the 2025-27 seasons, the Lobos had three Quad 1 and Quad 2 games in nonconference play. While it’s yet to be determined where any team will be ranked in this season’s NET rankings, and that is what determines if a game counts as a Quad 1, 2, 3 or 4 game, based on last year’s rankings, it appears the Lobos will have seven such opportunities this season in nonconference play.

The Lobos don’t play between the Dec. 23 Boise State game and Dec. 29 in the Pit against NAIA Northern New Mexico.

Mountain West play starts Jan. 2, 2026.

By the numbers

The Lobos 2026-27 schedule, which can be seen at the bottom of this article, breaks down like this:

*

3 exhibition games (at Oklahoma State, vs. Washington State, vs. Arizona State)

*

14 nonconference games

*

18 Mountain West conference games

*

18 regular season games in the Pit

*

12 road games

*

2 neutral court games

Howl details

Here are some of the details of next week’s Lobo Howl — a free-for-fans men’s and women’s basketball exhibition in the Pit on Oct. 9.

Skills challenge: Four teams mixed with players from the men’s team and the women’s team going through various drills comprising passing, dribbling, shooting and dunking challenges.

3-point contest: There will be a women’s team contest and men’s team contest with the winning women’s player and winning men’s player then going at it for the year’s top Lobo shooter honor (currently held by the women’s team and last year’s winner Kaia Foster, who beat current Lobo Jake Hall).

Dunk contest: Defending champion Uriah Tenette will try to defend his crown against a batch of new challengers, including first year guard Quintilla Hidalgo.

Yes, there will be a women’s player in the dunk contest.

Team showcases: Each team will have a 10 period (uncertain what each will do with those 10-minute periods), student halfcourt show competitions, in-game interviews with players and coaches and an all-player autograph session at the end.

Other odds & ends: Each team will also start with a 10 minute showcase period, will have student half court contests throughout, in game interviews, a post-even autograph session and videos related to the 60th anniversary of the Pit opening in 1966.

NIT picking

The NCAA on Thursday announced the National Invitation Tournament will drop to 24 teams this year.

The NIT – in which the Lobos won three games in March, advancing to April’s NIT final four in Indianapolis – was a 32-team field this past season.

This eight-team reduction, which will also be done for the NCAA-run Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament, coincides with the NCAA Tournament’s planned eight-team expansion to 76 teams — keeping the total number of Division I teams playing in NCAA-sanctioned postseason tournaments (NCAA Tournament plus the NIT) at 100 teams.

The first round of the NIT will now be 16 teams playing eight games with the winners then playing at the home gym of the top eight seeded teams in the tournament.

For a league to get an automatic bid into the NIT (and an invitation extended to the top-rated team that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament), it must finish the season as one of the top 10 ranked conferences by the analytics site KenPom.com — a certainty in years past for the Mountain West that is now still likely, but no longer the same lock it once was as the Pac-12/Mountain West split has not only watered down the league’s metrics of the past, it has added a second league that is expected to be in that Top 10 mix.

Not changing for the NIT after a successful debut trial this past season is the location of the semifinals — again heading to the same city and same week as where the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four will be held, which in the coming 2026-27 season is Detroit.

Geoff Grammer is the Sports Editor of the Journal, a podcaster, columnist and covers UNM Lobos basketball, among other things. Reach him at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.

2026-27 Lobo men’s basketball schedule

EXHIBITIONS (3)

Exhibition: at Oklahoma State, Oct. 11

Exhibition: vs. Washington State, Oct. 18 (The Pit)

Exhibition: vs. Arizona State, Oct. 25 (The Pit)

NONCONFERENCE (14)

vs. Utah Tech, Nov. 2

vs. Northern Arizona, Nov. 7, The Pit

vs. Arkansas Little Rock, Nov. 10, The Pit

at Santa Clara, Nov. 14

at Wichita State, Nov. 21

vs. Mississippi Valley State, Nov. 25, The Pit

vs. Utah State, Nov. 29, The Pit (CW)

vs. New Mexico State, Dec. 5, The Pit (CW)

vs. Saint Mary’s, Dec. 12, The Pit (CBS Sports Network)

vs. Mercer, Dec. 15, The Pit

at UC Irvine, Dec. 18

vs. Oregon State, Dec. 21 (SoCal Challenge, San Juan Capistrano, California)

vs. Boise State, Dec. 23 (SoCal Challenge, San Juan Capistrano, California)

vs. NAIA Northern New Mexico, Dec. 29, the Pit

MOUNTAIN WEST (18)

at UTEP, Jan. 2 (FS1)

vs. Nevada, Jan. 5, The Pit (CBS Sports Network)

vs. UC Davis, Jan. 9, The Pit (CW)

at UNLV, Jan. 12 (CBS Sports Network)

at Air Force, Jan. 16 (CW)

vs. San Jose State, Jan. 20, The Pit (FS1)

vs. Grand Canyon, Jan. 23, The Pit (CW)

at Hawaii, Jan. 26 (FS1)

vs. Air Force, Jan. 30, The Pit (FS1)

at San Jose State, Feb. 2 (CW)

at Grand Canyon, Feb. 6 (CBS Sports Network)

vs. UNLV, Feb. 13, The Pit (CBS Sports Network)

at Wyoming, Feb. 17 (FS1)

vs. UTEP, Feb. 20, The Pit (CBS Sports Network)

vs. Hawaii, Feb. 24, The Pit (CW)

at UC Davis, Feb. 27 (MW+)

vs. Wyoming, March 2, The Pit (CBS Sports Network)

at Nevada, March 5 (CBS Sports Network)

Mountain West Tournament March 10-13 (Las Vegas, Nevada)

Source: sports.yahoo.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.