Lady Vols basketball has a gauntlet of an out-of-conference schedule in year two under Kim Caldwell. Featured in the tough slate of games is a trip out west to play Stanford in the ACC/SEC Challenge. On Wednesday, the tip-off times and TV designations for the games in the event were released.
Tennessee will play the Cardinal at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The game is scheduled for Wednesday, December 3.
The Lady Vols lost a bit to graduation after last season, but did a fantastic job of reloading. UT brought in the No. 1-ranked transfer class and No. 2 high school recruiting class to fill out the holes on its roster. Tennessee is projected to be one of the better teams in the country as it looks to build off a Sweet 16 run from a year ago.
On the other hand, Stanford is also a well-respected women’s basketball program that has won three national titles, including one in 2021. However, legendary coach Tara VanDerveer retired before last season, handing the keys to Kate Paye. In her first year as head coach, the Cardinal finished 16-15 and 8-10 in ACC play while missing the NCAA Tournament.
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Along with the game against Stanford, Caldwell and Tennessee have a stacked list of non-conference games. While Caldwell doesn’t love how tough it’ll be, she does see the benefit.
“No,” Caldwell said on if she likes the difficulty of the schedule. “Do I think it’s necessary to make sure that we’re tested and we know who we are going into SEC play? Yes.”
Here’s the full schedule of out-of-conference games for Tennessee in the 2025-26 season:
- Nov. 4: NC State (Greensboro)
- Nov. 7: ETSU
- Nov. 9: at UT Martin
- Nov. 13: Belmont
- Nov. 20: at MTSU
- Nov. 23: Coppin State
- Nov. 30: at UCLA
- Dec. 3: at Stanford
- Dec. 14: Winthrop
- Dec. 20: Louisville (Brooklyn)
- Dec. 22: Southern Indiana
- Feb. 1: at UConn
