The Dayton Flyers host Morehead State at UD Arena at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, in their third and final exhibition game before the 2026-27 regular season, the University of Dayton announced.
Dayton comes into the final tune-up off a 75-65 exhibition win over Notre Dame, a result that showed early promise for a substantially rebuilt roster. The Flyers have also lost an exhibition to Xavier this preseason, which makes Saturday’s game the last live test of the rotation before the games count.
The roster turnover is the story of Dayton’s fall: the Flyers added nine newcomers this season, six transfers and three freshmen, and the exhibition slate has doubled as an extended audition for how those pieces fit around the returning players.
Morehead State brings its own scoring threat into the building. Junior Chase Dawson, who averaged 8.3 points per game last season, scored 32 points in the Eagles’ first exhibition, giving Dayton’s perimeter defense a specific assignment in its final rehearsal.
Saturday’s exhibition will not be streamed, according to the university; WHIO Radio will carry the game for fans who cannot make it to UD Arena.
Dayton opens the regular season at home against NJIT on Nov. 2, and the schedule keeps the Flyers in their own building early: their first five regular-season games are all at UD Arena.
For a team integrating nine new faces, those home games are the runway. Saturday night against Morehead State is the last chance to sort out the rotation in a game setting before NJIT arrives and the results start to matter.
UD Arena has a way of making even an exhibition feel like a measuring stick, and the Flyers’ staff has treated this preseason accordingly, rotating combinations freely against Notre Dame and Xavier to see which lineups defend together. With nine newcomers competing for minutes, Saturday’s minutes distribution will be the clearest public signal yet of the rotation Dayton intends to carry into November, particularly in the backcourt, where the transfers have pushed the returning guards throughout camp.