Iowa State Basketball Buy-Game Prices for Southern Miss, Southern Revealed

The Iowa State Cyclones men’s basketball team is going to have some tough competition to navigate during their non-conference schedule of the 2026-27 season.

Plenty of challenges await in neutral-site games with the Cyclones participating in the Players Era Festival, NABC Hall of Fame Classic and another trip to the Sanford Pentagon on the itinerary.

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Looking to lessen the burden a little bit during the out-of-conference schedule, Iowa State will be hosting a few buy games at Hilton Coliseum. Essentially, those are games against lower-tier teams that are paid a fee to travel to your arena for games.

It is a common practice amongst Power Conference schools, and the Cyclones have revealed the date and cost for two of those games against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles and Southern Panthers.

Iowa State locks in dates, fee for Southern Miss and Southern buy games

Those matchups will be played within a week of each other. Southern Miss is coming to Ames on Nov. 6, and it will cost Iowa State a fee of $115,000, per Henry Annen of Cyclone Alert, part of the 247Sports Network (subscription required).

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The Golden Eagles finished the 2025-26 campaign with a 19-16 record, going 8-8 during Sun Belt play. As the No. 8 seed in their conference tournament, they went on a nice run, defeating the James Madison Dukes, Texas State Bobcats and Appalachian State Mountaineers before being defeated by the Troy Trojans.

That will likely be the Cyclones’ second game of the 2026-27 season. They will kick things off at the Sanford Pentagon against the Memphis Tigers out of the American Athletic Conference on Nov. 2.

The second confirmed date for a home buy game is Nov. 10 against Southern. The Jaguars will receive a fee of $105,000 for making the trip from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa.