Iowa to play Abilene Christian on Nov. 17

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

Iowa will play Abilene Christian at Carver-Hawkeye Arena as part of the Battle 4 Atlantis, HawkeyeDrive.com has confirmed through multiple sources. Abilene Christian is entering its inaugural season competing at the Division-I level as a member of the Southland Conference and will officially become eligible for postseason play in 2017-18 once the school completes its four-year transition phase from Division-II.

The Wildcats will play road games at both Iowa and Xavier as part of the Battle 4 Atlantis before the Hawkeyes and Musketeers both travel to the Bahamas for the three-day tourney Thanksgiving weekend. A school official from Abilene Christian told HawkeyeDrive.com its contest against Iowa will take place Nov. 17, which is a Sunday. Its game at Xavier on Nov. 25 was originally reported by The Cincinnati Enquirer‘s Shannon Russell and has since been confirmed by Xavier upon Thursday’s release of the 2013-14 Big East basketball schedule.

UTEP, who is among the teams joining both Iowa and Xavier at the Battle 4 Atlantis in late November, has also announced its home game for the tourney taking place Nov. 17 in El Paso against West Alabama, a Division-II program.

Prior to this week, the only confirmed mainland opponents for Battle 4 Atlantis were Towson, who will host the mainland bracket Thanksgiving weekend after playing at both Villanova and Kansas, and The Citadel, who is scheduled to play at both Tennessee and Wake Forest.

Iowa’s match-up against the Wildcats completes the Hawkeyes’ non-conference schedule for 2013-14, which consists of eight home games, the three games in Nassau as part of the Battle 4 Atlantis, the Big Four Classic contest against Drake in Des Moines and the road match-up at Iowa State.