Tennessee and Baylor will square off in women’s basketball in Nashville on Dec. 18 at Bridgestone Arena, Complete Sports Management announced on Wednesday.
The match-up between the Lady Vols and Bears will be one of two contests played at the downtown Music City venue on that Friday. Vanderbilt and Belmont will face one another in a game that follows. Tip times and broadcast information will be released later.
Pre-sale tickets are on sale here using the promo code NASHVOLS26. Tickets will go on sale to the public Friday at 11 a.m. ET (10 CT) at this link.
UT and BU will face off for the ninth time, but this will mark the first occasion they’ve played each other since 2016. The Bears lead the all-time series, 6-2, winning the past six meetings since the Lady Vols claimed the first two battles between the schools in 2004 and 2009. The Big Orange is 1-2 in neutral site contests vs. Baylor.
Tennessee, which is ranked No. 25 in the USA TODAY Sports “Way-Too-Early” Top 25, heads into year three of the Kim Caldwell era and seeks its third straight NCAA appearance under her watch. The Lady Vols finished 16-14 (8-8 in the SEC) in 2025-26, tying for sixth in the league and falling in the NCAA First Round. Caldwell will lead an entirely-new 15-player roster, comprised of 13 transfers and two freshmen that she and her staff finalized in just 22 days.
Baylor, meanwhile, finished 25-9 overall (13-5 in the Big 12) a year ago, placing third in league play and falling in the NCAA Second Round. The Bears, who are coached by sixth-year skipper Nicki Collen, welcome back one of the nation’s most prolific scorers in Taliah Scott (19.7), but they lost their second through sixth-leading scorers from last season.
