Michigan State has added another tough opponent to its schedule for 2026-27, but this one won’t be in the regular season.
The Spartans already have one of the most loaded non-conference schedules in the nation, and it just got a little tougher with the addition of an exhibition game against a prominent team from the Big East.
According to the Spartans’ official account, they’ll head to Milwaukee on Oct. 25 to face Marquette in what will be one of two exhibition games against Big East teams that have been legitimate contenders within the past few years.
Headed to Milwaukee this fall 🏀 pic.twitter.com/e629lyBYbT
— Michigan State Men's Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) July 9, 2026
Michigan State is set to host UConn in exhibition play in October after going to Connecticut before the 2025-26 season for a preseason game. That, unfortunately, didn’t go as planned for Tom Izzo and the Spartans as they looked outmatched against Dan Hurley and the Huskies. They also faced UConn in the NCAA Tournament but a slow start led to a heartbreaking loss in the Sweet 16.
Facing two tough opponents in exhibition play will have this team ready to hit the ground running once the regular season starts, which will be much-needed.
The Spartans are going to face an absolute gauntlet this season, starting in non-conference play.
MSU’s non-conference slate might be Tom Izzo’s toughest yet
With the addition of Marquette on top of UConn in non-conference play, Michigan State may have one of the toughest preseason slates in the country, if not the toughest.
While Marquette wasn’t exactly a contender last season, it’s still been one of the best teams in the Big East over the past couple of decades and the Golden Eagles just faced the Spartans in the NCAA Tournament a few years ago — and they were favored. Shaka Smart is a good coach so he’ll make this a tough matchup for a top-10 Michigan State team.
Besides UConn (national title contender every year) and Marquette, Michigan State will face nothing but juggernauts in non-conference play, it seems.
Michigan State will play Arkansas on Thanksgiving Day at Little Caesars Arena, which was just announced as a 4:30 p.m. ET tipoff on Wednesday. It’ll also see Duke in the Champions Classic, Gonzaga all the way out in California right before Christmas, and Tennessee on the road in a game that has yet to have an official date.
There have also been some rumblings of another potentially-ranked non-conference opponent, but those might just be rumors.
And this is all just non-conference play. This isn’t even including Illinois and Michigan which are both projected to be top-five teams out of the Big Ten this season.
Izzo is trying to get his second ring this year, and he’s making sure that his team is battle-tested by the time the NCAA Tournament rolls around. He has the team that can maneuver through this schedule and come out on top of most of these matchups, but they’re going to need to play some elite basketball with not many “cakewalk” games.
Like Izzo says: anybody, any place, any time.
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