VALDOSTA, Ga. – Valdosta State head men's basketball coach Mike Helfer announced Tuesday the 2025-26 Blazer basketball schedule featuring 15 home games at The Complex and 28 total games for the season.
 
"Our 2025-26 schedule will be challenging with the always tough GSC, but also some very tough South Region opponents," Helfer said.  "It's nice to get some teams that are close to Valdosta on our schedule.   Middle Georgia, Edward Waters, Florida Tech, and Embry Riddle are all within a few hours of VSU.   Hopefully we will have some fans travel to see us on the road in these closer games.  It's always hard to see us on the road in the GSC due to most of our games 5-6 hours away.  It will challenge us and we will need to be ready to play every night." 
 
The Blazers open the 2025-26 campaign where they will host the Gulf South Conference/Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference/Sunshine State Conference Challenge at The Complex, Nov. 14-16.  VSU opens with Edward Waters on Nov. 14, followed by entertaining Florida Tech on Nov. 16.  Edward Waters and Florida Tech will battle on Nov. 15 in a neutral site matchup.
 
Following the opening weekend, the Blazers play a home-and-home against Middle Georgia with the first game being in Cochran, Ga., on Nov. 19 and the return game on Nov. 24.  A trip to Daytona Beach, Fla., to face Embry-Riddle on Nov. 29 closes out the first month of the season.
 
December opens with GSC play as the Blazers entertain West Alabama on Dec. 4 and The University of Alabama in Huntsville on Dec. 6, before dipping out of league play to battle Baptist University of Florida on Dec. 8 for the final home game before the Christmas holiday.  Trips to West Florida (Dec. 13), Trevecca Nazarene (Dec. 18) and Lee (Dec. 20) close out the 2025 portion of the schedule.  
 
The Blazers open 2026 hosting a pair of teams from the Magnolia State in Mississippi College (Jan. 2) and Delta State (Jan. 4), before heading to Tennessee for Union (Jan. 8) and Christian Brothers (Jan. 10).  VSU returns home to host Montevallo and Auburn Montgomery on Jan. 15 and Jan. 17, respectively, to wrap up the first half of the conference portion of the schedule.  
 
VSU begins the second half at UAH and West Alabama on Jan. 22 and Jan. 24, before hosting rival West Florida on Jan. 31 in conjunction with the 2026 VSU Athletic Hall of Fame Weekend.
 
February begins with the Blazers hosting Lee (Feb. 5) and Trevecca Nazarene (Feb. 7), before heading West to Mississippi for two games and then return home to host Christian Brothers (Feb. 19) and Union (Feb. 21) for Senior Day.  The regular season concludes with games at Auburn Montgomery (Feb. 25) and at Montevallo (Feb. 27).  
 
The 2026 Gulf South Conference Championship will have a different format this season as the higher seed(s) will host throughout the tournament beginning Mar. 2 and ending Mar. 8.  
 
The 2026 NCAA South Regional is scheduled for Mar. 14-17 at the regional top seed, while the Elite Eight and national semifinal rounds are set for Mar. 24 and Mar. 26, respectively, in Pittsburgh, Pa., with the national championship game scheduled for Apr. 5 in Indianapolis, Ind., in conjunction with the Division I Men's Final Four.
 
Helfer and the Blazers are coming off a 25-7 record and an 18-4 mark in Gulf South Conference play in 2024-25 as the team qualified for the NCAA South Regional for the first time since 2021 and the ninth time under Helfer.  The 25 victories last season by the Blazers marked the most since the team won 26 games in 2019-20 as that team also had 18 league wins.  
 
He begins his 21^st season in 2025-26 at the helm of the Blazers.  Helfer is 386-198 at VSU (.661) and 220-138 (.615) in GSC play, while he is 572-281 (.671) overall in 28 seasons of coaching including eight years of coaching at Southern Poly.  
 
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