Vols Announce Basketball Series With Purdue

(utsports.com) – The University of Tennessee announced Wednesday morning an agreement with Purdue University for a two-year, home-and-home series in men’s basketball.

The Volunteers will travel to West Lafayette, Ind., next season for the first game of the series, which is set for Dec. 12, 2026, at Mackey Arena. The Boilermakers will make a return visit to Knoxville the following season for a Dec. 11, 2027, contest at Food City Center.

Tennessee and Purdue, approximately 425 miles apart, have squared off seven times in a series that dates to 1980. The Volunteers are 2-5 in those affairs, including 1-0 at home, 0-1 on the road and 1-4 at neutral sites.

The first two meetings took place at campus sites, with Tennessee winning a 78-69 home tilt on Dec. 6, 1980, and then dropping an 82-68 road contest on Nov. 28, 1981. The last five clashes have all come at neutral sites, with three in November multi-team events and two in the NCAA Tournament. The seven matchups have come at seven different locations across five states and two other countries.

Both teams have been ranked in the top 15 in four of the last five showdowns, with each side in the top 10 for three of them. All five of those games have featured at least one team ranked in the top 20.

Tennessee and Purdue last met on March 21, 2024, in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight in Detroit. The Boilermakers claimed a 72-66 victory.

Since the start of the 2017-18 campaign, eight-plus seasons, Purdue (207) and Tennessee (202) rank fifth and seventh, respectively among all Division I programs in total wins. The Boilermakers (10) and Volunteers (seven) also hold, respectively, the third- and fourth-longest active NCAA Tournament streaks in the country.

Tennessee has previously announced its participation in the Players Era Men’s Championship in both 2026-27 and 2027-28. In addition, the Volunteers will play Illinois in a neutral-site game in Chicago in 2027-28.