Cleveland State released its 2025-26 non-conference schedule on Tuesday afternoon, a slate of 11 regular-season games that includes seven to be played at home.
However, it’s the four road games that provide most of its intrigue.
As has been customary of late, the Vikings’ schedule is anchored by a high-major opponent, Northwestern. The Wildcats, however, represent a drastic departure from other schools that have held that role – Iowa State, Iowa, and Ohio State among them – in that they’re not among the national elite. NU was 9-18 last season, and just 2-16 in the Big Ten, resulting in a final NET ranking of 119, behind CSU’s 108.
Longtime head coach Joe McKeown added Tate Walters, Furman’s leader in scoring, assists, and steals last season, through the transfer portal in the spring. However, Melannie Daley took her 11.7 points per game to Virginia Tech, and high scorer Caleigh Walsh ran out of eligibility, as did top rebounder Taylor Williams. Stellar point guard Caroline Lau is expected back, as is sniper Casey Harter, but all in all, Northwestern certainly fits the profile of a team that could drop a contest to a mid-major school, particularly early in the season.
Northwestern will pay Cleveland State a $27,000 guarantee for the game, which is set for November 21st in Evanston, IL.
CSU will also receive a small guarantee, $5,000, to play at Cal State Fullerton on the season’s first Sunday, November 9th. The Titans were 5-23 last season, resulting in the usual portal exodus (including Eva Levingston, who ended up at Robert Morris), and also, a coaching change. John Bonner is the new man in charge, fresh off of leading a different branch of the Cal State system, Dominguez Hills, to an NCAA Division II runner-up finish. A trio of players from that Toros roster should help jump start Bonner’s rebuild.
Six weeks after flying to Southern California, the Vikings will make their other long trip of the non-conference schedule, a return engagement at the Puerto Rico Clasico. Last season, of course, CSU enjoyed a December trip to the island that almost incidentally featured a pair of decisive wins, against Morgan State and Puerto Rico-Mayaguez.
For Vikings head coach Chris Kielsmeier, assembling the schedule is largely about getting his team ready for Horizon League play. However, there’s a persistent question that permeates most of the process: where’s the fun?
“Life’s an experience, and to me, you’re just looking for those moments that carry with you, and you can remember them 20 years from now like they happened yesterday,” he said. “Playing in Puerto Rico…winning two games was special, but it was the boat ride, it was the jet-skis. It’s a family experience, just Vikings coming together and having a great time. That was a big part of why we went back again.”
“College basketball, and just basketball period, has taken me so many places around the states,” senior guard Colbi Maples added. “It’s amazing, all of the different things you see just because of this one little sport where you try to put a little ball in the hoop. It’s just a lot of opportunity that you don’t really think about until you look back [on it].”
UPRM is once again a part of this year’s Puerto Rico event, as is College of Charleston.
The Cougars are fairly objectively the best team on the schedule, at least in 2024-25 terms, as they went 25-8 overall (including a win over Northwestern), and made it to the WNIT’s Super 16 round. Charleston is led by the “Tornado Twins,” guards Taryn and Taylor Barbot, juniors who combined for roughly 30 of the team’s 73.2 points per game.
Cleveland State’s home schedule is highlighted by the Viking Invitational, a Thanksgiving-weekend multi-team event that will return this fall after a one-year hiatus. Radford, St. Bonaventure, and Valparaiso will round out the field, with the precise timing of the matchups still to be determined. Each of those opponents had losing records last year, but the latter two are members of the strong Atlantic-10 and Missouri Valley Conferences, which could offer the Vikings’ metrics a boost as the season progresses.
“I’m excited about [returning] the MTE back to Cleveland, we’re hosting that over Thanksgiving week and have some really great teams coming here,” Kielsmeier said. “We’ll put on a great event, and [it’s great] to be able to be home all that week.”
The Viking Invitational includes three of the four games this season that will be played in Woodling Gymnasium. In recent years, the program’s primary home before the Wolstein Center’s 1991 construction has seen increased basketball activity, in specific circumstances. One of those circumstances, certainly, is conflict, which resulted in a graduation-weekend tilt with Niagara also being pushed to the old barn.
Wolstein Center games against Akron – one year to the day after the Zips upset CSU in UA’s Rhodes Arena – Chicago State, and Division II’s Pitt-Johnstown round out the regular schedule. Findlay will unofficially kick things off as the team’s exhibition opponent on October 29th.
“The schedule’s a puzzle,” Kielsmeier pointed out. “You’ve gotta find people that, first, want to play you. Then they have to be able to play you on the dates you have available.”
“It’s pretty extensive what goes into it, you never feel like you got everything you wanted accomplished, but I feel like we did close to that with this schedule.”
