Midland College Basketball

#9 Midland College Chaparrals vs #4 Howard College Hawks  

Thursday, March 5, 2026 

Big Spring, TX

The No. 9 Midland College Chaps will approach the final regular season game of 2026 with a chance to win a share of the 2026 WJCAC title as well as a chance to fall to a fourth place in the conference standings.  Midland College, 25-4 this season and 11-4 in the WJCAC, will travel 40 miles to the northeast to the Dorothy Garrett Coliseum, home of the No. 4 Howard College Hawks.  Howard College sits at 25-4 and 12-3 in the WJCAC one game ahead of Midland College, South Plains College and New Mexico Junior College in the standings.  That means a single game separates the top four teams in the WJCAC headed into Thursday's season finale.  

To fully understand how competitive the WJCAC slate has been in 2026, there are currently five mens teams ranked in the NJCAA Men's DI Basketball Rankings Top 25:  #4 Howard College, Midland College at No. 9, South Plains College sits at 14th, New Mexico Junior College is ranked 15th and Odessa College comes in ranked 22nd. 

NJCAA Men's Division I Basketball Rankings:  https://www.njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/rankings/DI/index 

In addition to Thursday's Midland College at Howard College match-up, NMJC will host Odessa while South Plains will travel to Clarendon College to end the regular season.  The results of each game will have real implications for the seeding of next week's NJCAA Region 5 Basketball Tournament in Odessa (March 11-14).  A Midland College win could place the Chaps as the #1 seed from the WJCAC.  A loss could drop MC into the #4 seed in the tournament.  

2026 NJCAA Region 5 Basketball Tournament Information:  https://njcaaregion5.com/general/2025-26/releases/20260206c0p9yl 

Watch the Chaps at Hawks (live stream):  https://tsbnsports.com/midland-vs-howard-basketball-men-2/ 

Go Chaps!