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Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 women’s basketball league founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, is set to unveil the schedule for the upcoming season this Wednesday, a league official told Forbes. Additionally, the partnership with TNT Sports will include an expanded fourth broadcast day. The 2026 season will run from Jan. 5 through March 4, with all teams taking the court on opening night. Now featuring eight teams, up from six in the inaugural season, the expanded 56-game regular season means more visibility opportunities for players and more entertainment for fans. “With eight teams comes a fourth night of broadcast. And, quite honestly, it was a no-brainer for us,” Unrivaled Chief Content Officer John Learing said. “TNT made all the sense in the world from a destination perspective.” The first game will feature a matchup between last season’s championship runner-up, Vynil BC, and newcomer Hive BC at 1 p.m. ET. Next, Stewart’s Mist BC takes on Jackie Young’s Laces BC. Later that day, reigning champions Rose BC will play 2025’s best-ranked club, Lunar Owls. Breeze BC, the other of the two debuting teams, will face Paige Bueckers’ Phantom BC to close out the action. Both games are scheduled to be broadcast on TNT, truTV and HBO Max starting at 8 p.m. ET. “We’re thrilled to expand our partnership with Unrivaled and add a fourth night of this incredible basketball experience to the TNT Sports lineup. The league’s growth and success are a testament to the athletes’ talent, vision, and the growing passion for women’s basketball,” Craig Barry, TNT Sports executive vice president and chief content officer, said in a statement to Forbes. MORE FOR YOU But it’s not only regular season games that fill out the schedule. The annual 1-on-1 tournament, a fan favorite from last year, will be held Feb. 11, 13 and 14. The format, acclaimed among basketball stars across leagues, is reportedly being considered as one of the features of the 2026 NBA All-Star Weekend. No official announcement had been made by the league at the time of this publication. Unrivaled will also hold “Philly Is Unrivaled,” its first-ever tour stop, on Jan. 30. Fans in Philadelphia will have the opportunity to catch two games, one between Breeze and Phantom, and the other between Rose and Lunar Owls, at Xfinity Mobile Arena. “We always want to show growth to our investors, our fans, our players, everybody in the ecosystem. So we knew we needed to do something a bit more aggressive in year two,” Learing said. “We’re going to go to Philadelphia for our first tour stop. And in addition to that, we decided we would grow by two teams, making our league eight total. It just felt natural.” The regular season is set to end Feb. 27, with playoffs starting the very next day and the championship game slated for March 4. Unrivaled Eliminates Back-To-Backs Unrivaled has committed to addressing one of the players’ main grievances from this past WNBA season: health and safety. With more games comes the concern of fatigue, which could lead to injuries and hinder athletes’ ability to play longer. According to Lucas Seehafer, a physical therapist and assistant professor, the league saw 172 injuries by Aug. 1, as reported on Locked On Women’s Basketball. The situation escalated to the point where Collier called out WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert in her exit interview. She has ensured the league she co-owns does not follow in those footsteps. “One of the very first things we did with this new fourth night is that we were able to really take on one of the very first comments that our players had for us after season one, which was, ‘Hey, we would love to make sure, if possible, that we don’t play back-to-back games,’” Learing said. “And going into the offseason with the fourth night, we were able to sort of address that issue and make sure that players don’t play back-to-back.” “I think that’s pretty simple, and it sounds stupid, but it really is a players’ league, and we just want to make sure that every single decision we make is first and foremost with them in mind.”
