BOCA RATON, Fla. — Florida Atlantic will play a 13-game nonconference schedule that includes five neutral site locations, the team announced Tuesday.
The Owls will tip off their season Nov. 8 in the Barstool Sports Invitational against Loyola at Wintrust Arena in Chicago.
They'll host Eastern Michigan and Bryant in their first two home games before heading to Walt Disney World to face Butler in the ESPN Events Invitational on Thanksgiving. It's the first of three games of the tournament, which concludes Nov. 26.
FAU will then return home to face Liberty and Charleston before a trip to New York to take on Big Ten Conference opponent Illinois in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden, where the Owls punched their ticket to the school's first-ever Final Four last season.
Longtime rival Florida International comes to town on Dec. 13. The Owls swept the Panthers in their two regular-season meetings a season ago.
From there, it's back on the road for the Owls as they face St. Bonaventure at the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Pacific 12 Conference team Arizona in Las Vegas.
Their first and only true road game of the nonconference season comes on Dec. 30 at Florida Gulf Coast.
The Owls finished the 2022-23 season with 35 wins – the most of any team in the nation – and fell one game shy of playing in the national championship game.
Head coach Dusty May returns for his sixth season after receiving a 10-year contract extension that would pay him a $100,000 bonus for leading the Owls back to the Final Four. His 101 wins are already the most of any coach in program history.