OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian University Evangels are set to begin their NAIA national championship defense on Oct. 25 at home vs. Manhattan Christian. 

MACU fans will get to see plenty of their defending NAIA National Championship squad early on, as the season opener is the first of seven straight home games for the Evangels to kick off the 2016-17 season.

"It's a challenging schedule we're facing this season, but I like all the home dates we've been able to secure, particularly early in the season," head coach Josh Gamblin said.

After facing Philander Smith on Oct. 28, the Evangels will host NCAA D-II Southwestern Oklahoma State (Nov. 5), Lindenwood-Bellville (Nov. 10), Langston (Nov. 12), Haskell Indian Nations (Nov. 18) and Kansas Christian (Nov. 22).

The Evangels are then scheduled to compete in the Northern New Mexico Classic on Nov. 25-26 before returning home to host Wiley College on Nov. 29.

MACU opens the Sooner Athletic Conference season with a pair of home games against Texas Wesleyan University (Dec. 1) and Bacone College (Dec. 3).

The Evangels also have an exhibition matchup at NCAA D-II University of Central Oklahoma on Dec. 10 and will play at Dallas Christian on Dec. 14.

To wrap up the first semester, the Evangels will host Crowley's Ridge College on Dec. 17.

Following a date at Philander Smith on Jan. 2, the Evangels will dive back into the SAC schedule on Jan. 5 at Oklahoma City University.

January provides a challenging slate for the Evangels, with four straight road games that stretches from Jan. 14-26 and features dates at USAO, Southwestern Assemblies of God University, Bacone College and Southwestern Christian University.

The conclusion of the regular season sees the Evangels with three of their final four games at home vs. SCU (Feb. 16), SAGU (Feb. 18) and OCU (Feb. 25).

"We're anticipating a challenging SAC slate, as usual this season," Gamblin said. 

Click HERE for the complete schedule.