AMERICUS — When Georgia Southwestern joined the Peach Belt Conference, Kennesaw State and North Florida were departing for Division I’s Atlantic Sun Conference.

The Hurricanes will play their first-ever Division I opponent since joining Divsion II in the season opener this year when they travel to Kennesaw to take on the Owls.

“It will be a chance to open up the season against a very good opponent,” said coach Mike Leeder of the Owls, which were 13-20 overall and 7-9 in the A-Sun. “Markeith Cummings is coming back — he was their leading scorer and rebounder as a freshman, and he’ll probably be the single best individual talent we’ll play against this year. Plus, it’s good financially for us, and we have a lot of guys from that area.”

GSW opens the season with a pair of exhibitions at North Carolina-Wilmington and Alabama State. Leeder said those games should be a good indicator of who can produce and how the team will play together. The roster is revamped with seven new faces — all transfers — and it adds Jamon Hawkins, who redshirted last season.

“We’ve got a lot of new guys, and I think when you have that many new guys playing against good competition early on helps,” he said. “The games don’t hurt you in wins or losses, but it gives us coaches a chance to evaluate the players, and they can get a good feel for reach other.”

GSW returns for a 5-game home set against Kennesaw with Knoxville College, Clearwater Christian, Fort Valley State, Trinity Baptist (Fla.) and Livingstone all paying visits. Leeder said the Knoxville, Clearwater and Trinity games will be much like its trip to Kennesaw.

“They’re all taking a step up to play Division II basketball,” he said.

All of GSW’s opponents were under .500 last season, as GSW, which finished 7-20 overall and 3-14 in conference play.

“We’re playing very comparable-type teams record-wise,” said Leeder. “For the first time in a while, the schedule is manageable.”

Not on the schedule are Valdosta State and Albany State. Leeder said dates didn’t work out with the Blazers while the Rams didn’t want to play.

Prior to opening conference play, GSW will play Lenoir-Rhyne and Hiwassee at Lander’s New Year’s Classic.

Just like last season, the Hurricanes open PBC play with three NCAA tournament teams as they host USC-Aiken before going to Montevallo and Georgia College. They lost all three games to start the conference by at least 20 points last year.

The grueling road schedule continues in the PBC this season. After playing their next three games at home, the Hurricanes face a road trip that has four in a row and six of seven overall.

“I can tell you at the meeting with the commissioners and ADs, the schedule was a great concern to all the coaches,” said Leeder. “There’s four or five schools in our boat, and I don’t care what league you’re in, that’s very difficult to do. It’s right in the middle of the conference schedule, and it’s not changing, so we’ve got to prepare for it.

“They were open to hearing scheduling ideas. There’s got to be a better way to schedule.”

GSW finishes the regular season with four of its last seven at home, with Clayton State being the finale on Feb. 26.

“I’m excited with this group we’ve got,” said Leeder. “In terms of a recruiting class, this is the best class by far. I’m eager to get started and go through the schedule with this group of guys. I think they’ll be fun to watch, fun to coach, and I think it will be fun for them playing together. That wasn’t the case last year.”

The Hurricanes lost eight conference games by single-digits last year, including five by four points or less. Leeder is optimistic those games will be different this year.

“As close as we kept games last year, with these guys we’ve got coming in, hopefully they will get us over the hump in those close games,” he said.