Moneyball has officially come to an end which means that we’re in the final stretch before the 2026-27 Michigan State basketball season finally begins.
Tom Izzo is preparing for one of the most important seasons of his career as he brings back an All-American point guard and one of the best rosters in college basketball. It’s likely the last season that he’ll have Jeremy Fears Jr. in East Lansing and it’s also Coen Carr’s senior year. There’s also a non-zero chance that he has a one-and-done in his incoming freshman class.
Michigan State is going to be a top-five team when the season begins, but it’s all up to the Hall of Famer to put the right pieces into place for a national title push.
That pursuit of a national title will also be affected by a loaded non-conference slate. We’ll know pretty early on if Michigan State is capable of title contention or if the team is just a step below the favorites to win it all. Michigan State will face UConn and Marquette in exhibition play and then Tennessee, Duke, Gonzaga, and Arkansas over the first two months of the season.
And apparently there’s going to be one more elite opponent added to the non-conference slate.
Cam Ward told the media last night at Moneyball that Michigan State has another big game that hasn’t been announced yet.
— Andrew Cumbow (@ACumbow) July 31, 2026
Wonder who it could be? Already have Duke, Tennessee, Arkansas and Gonzaga on the slate.
Credit to @TheSpartanMag for posting the video.
During a post-Moneyball championship game interview with SpartanMag, Ward spoke about his performance in the title game to lift his team past Jeremy Fears Jr. and Ethan Taylor and he also previewed the 2026-27 season a little bit. He said that Michigan State had some big exhibition games as well as a few big-time regular-season games, including one that hasn’t been announced yet.
Who might it be? That’s a great question.
Who’s the mystery opponent for Michigan State?
I didn’t really know where to begin when guessing who Michigan State’s mystery non-conference opponent might be, so I looked at some preseason Top 25 projections.
Judging by how excited Ward was when he revealed that there was another big game on the schedule, I’m going to assume it’ll be a Top 25 opponent. My early guesses would be one of the following teams:
- Arizona
- Alabama
- St. John’s
- Houston
- Kansas
- Vanderbilt
- Villanova
This isn’t just a random list, but each one would make sense for different reasons.
Michigan State faced Arizona as recently as 2023 on Thanksgiving so there’s familiarity there for a standalone non-conference game. This would be a monster non-conference game and it would make sense for both sides considering both a title contenders.
Alabama head coach Nate Oats coached high school basketball in Michigan and is very familiar with Tom Izzo. They’ve also faced each other during the 2022 Phil Knight Invitational. Oats and Alabama got the better of Izzo, 81-70, so there’s also head-to-head familiarity there.
St. John’s, Houston, Kansas, and Vanderbilt are all on here because each of the head coaches has a personal relationship with Izzo. Rick Pitino is one of college basketball’s OG coaches along with Izzo, Kelvin Sampson is freinds with the Hall of Famer, Bill Self is also close with Izzo, and Mark Byington currently employs Izzo’s nephew at Vanderbilt after the two upset the Spartans while at James Madison in 2023-24. The Vanderbilt game could be more of a revenge game for Izzo.
Whoever it is, one thing is for certain: Izzo isn’t playing around this year.
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