The Southeastern Conference released its 2025 women’s basketball schedule on Wednesday, and Tennessee’s 16-game slate features home games against five teams appearing in the ESPN Way-Too-Early Top 25 and road tilts vs. three additional foes residing in that poll.
First-year Lady Vol head coach Kim Caldwell’s squad will welcome No. 1 South Carolina, No. 7 LSU, No. 13 Oklahoma, No. 21 Alabama and No. 23 Ole Miss to Food City Center. They’ll also face No. 6 Texas, No. 7 LSU and No. 25 Kentucky on the road. Oklahoma and Texas, former members of the Big 12 Conference, are making their debuts in the now 16-team SEC.
While tip times and broadcast details have yet to be announced, season tickets for an impressive home schedule are on sale now and can be purchased here.
“Our schedule is challenging, and the SEC is loaded this year, but we are excited to see where we stand among the top teams in the country,” Caldwell said. “We have been working hard during the preseason to create a blue collar program that Lady Vol fans will be proud to watch. We can’t wait to see everyone in Food City Center soon. The season will be here before we know it.”
Conference play will begin on Thursday, Jan. 2, and run through Sunday, March 2. The schedule consists of a single round robin (14 games) of home and away contests with one rotating home/away opponent (2 games). LSU is the rotating foe in 2025.
Once again, each team will play eight home games and eight away contests. The 2025 season marks the 16th year of the 16-game schedule for women’s basketball and the first with 16 teams competing for a championship.
Caldwell’s troops will open SEC action on the road, facing Texas A&M in College Station on Jan. 2 before returning home to play host to Oklahoma and LSU in back-to-back games vs. preseason top-15 units on Jan. 5 and 9. The contest vs. OU marks the second-straight year the teams have met, with Tennessee taking a 76-73 decision on Nov. 25, 2023, at the Elevance Health Women’s Fort Myers Tip-Off. The schools hadn’t met in back-to-back seasons since doing so twice in 2002-03 and 2003-04 as well as in 2007-08 and 2008-09.
In addition to those two home league affairs, the Lady Vols will welcome Mississippi State on Jan. 16, South Carolina on Jan. 27, Auburn on Feb. 13, Ole Miss on Feb. 16, Alabama on Feb. 20 and Georgia on March 2 for the conference finale. While the rest of UT’s SEC home slate features Sunday or Thursday games, the match-up with the Gamecocks was shifted by the league to a Monday night for television.
The road portion of the itinerary also includes January treks to Arkansas on Jan. 12, Vanderbilt on Jan. 19 and Texas on Jan. 23. The Lady Vols and Longhorns, who have met 42 times previously in a long-running non-conference series, will reconvene for the first time since a Lady Vol home win on Nov. 21, 2021.
In February, Tennessee opens the month with a visit to Missouri on Feb. 2 and follows with trips to LSU on Feb. 9, Florida on Feb. 23 and Kentucky on Feb. 27. UK joins UT as the only SEC women’s hoops programs featuring new head coaches this season.
The SEC Tournament returns to Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C., for the eighth time, including the sixth occasion in the past seven seasons. The event will take place March 5-9.
