OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian University men's basketball team has high hopes for the 2017-18 season as they try to return to the top of the heap in the NAIA. On Tuesday, MACU head coach Josh Gamblin released the 2017-18 schedule, which is once again a full slate of 32 contests, broken down into 22 Sooner Athletic Conference games, eight non-conference tilts, and two exhibitions.

"We are very excited about the challenges that our schedule will bring," Coach Gamblin said. "We believe our non-conference slate will prepare us for the always tough Sooner Athletic Conference. Our league is full of great teams, coaches, and players. We have to be ready every single night."

The schedule opens on October 27 when the Evangels will pair with the women's team to play a double header against Manhattan Christian College at the Gaulke Activity Center. The game is slated to tip at 8 p.m., and it will be followed by two away games before the Calendar turns to November – a short road trip to take on the two-time defending NCCAA Division II National Champion Randall University Saints in nearby Moore on the 28^th, and an exhibition contest at Southwestern Oklahoma State University on Halloween night. Both away games are scheduled for 6 p.m.

The November slate will include a pair of lengthy road trips, first to Lindenwood University-Belleville in Belleville, Illinois on the 6^th, and then to Crowley's Ridge College in Paragould, Arkansas on the 18^th. The Evangels will also travel to Langston University on the 14^th, but the rest of the month, they will be at home. They will host Northern New Mexico College on the 9^th and Ecclesia College on the 11^th in non-conference action before opening the SAC schedule on November 30 against Central Christian College in the first SAC game for the newcomers to the conference.

December features a light schedule, with three SAC games and one exhibition contest. MACU will host Oklahoma City (Dec. 2) and Southwestern Assemblies of God (Dec. 14) before the Christmas break, and they will travel to both Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, playing an exhibition at Dallas Baptist University (Dec. 5) and a conference tilt at Texas Wesleyan University (Dec. 16).

Five of the Evangels' first six games of 2018 will be away from home. MACU opens the second semester schedule at Southwestern Christian University on January 4, and they play their first home game of the New Year on January 6 against St. Gregory's University. On January 8, MACU steps out of SAC play to finish the non-conference schedule at Haskell Indian Nations University, and that game opens a stretch of four games in an eight day span. Consecutive away SAC games at Oklahoma Panhandle State University (Jan. 11), Wayland Baptist (Jan. 13), and the University of Science and Arts (Jan. 15). The final four games of the month alternate between home and away tilts, with MACU hosting Bacone College (Jan. 18) and Texas Wesleyan (Jan. 25), and making trips to John Brown University (Jan. 20) and SAGU (Jan. 27).

The Evangels return trips to Central Christian and Oklahoma City in the first two games of February, but then MACU finishes with five of their final seven games at home. JBU (Feb. 8), USAO (Feb. 12), WBU (Feb. 15), and OPSU (Feb. 17) all come to the Gaulke Activity Center before the Evangels finish their road schedule at St. Gregory's on February 22. MACU will host Southwestern Christian for Senior Day festivities on February 24 to wrap up the regular season.

The First Round of the SAC tournament will take place on February 27 with the top four seeds in the Quarterfinal round. The winners of the SAC Quarterfinals will head to Bill George Arena on March 2-3 for the semifinals and finals of the Conference Championships. The regular season SAC Champion will receive one of the SAC's two automatic qualifiers to the 81^st Annual Buffalo Funds NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship, which will be held at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri from March 14-20, 2018. The SAC's second automatic berth will go to the tournament Champion. If those teams are the same, the tournament runner up will receive the second automatic berth.