Tom Izzo is not afraid of anyone, and it feels like he keeps scheduling tougher non-conference opponents as he gets old. Now, at the ripe age of 71, Izzo has scheduled arguably the toughest non-conference schedule in his entire career.
A year after facing Kentucky, Arkansas, Duke, and North Carolina in non-conference play, Michigan State is gearing up to face Arkansas, Duke, Gonzaga, and now Tennessee.
There doesn’t look to be a big difference between next year and this past season, but the upcoming non-conference slate is sure to be just a gauntlet of top-10 opponents. The 2025-26 non-conference schedule featured a bunch of really good teams that weren’t great outside of Duke. Arkansas got a lot better as the season progressed and North Carolina was really good before Caleb Wilson got hurt but Kentucky was rather disappointing.
Next season is sure to be top-10 team after top-10 team. If you look at the way-too-early rankings projections, Duke, Arkansas, Gonzaga, and Tennessee are all ranked near the top 10 and I wouldn’t be shocked to see each one of them in that range when they face the Spartans.
And this isn’t even counting top-five exhibition opponent UConn which will be coming to the Breslin Center to face the Spartans this fall.
This very well might be his toughest non-conference slate yet.
What makes these Michigan State opponents so tough?
Let’s start with Duke. Jon Scheyer and the Blue Devils might just have the most talented roster outside of Florida in college basketball next season. They’re going to be loaded despite losing Cameron Boozer and they’re probably just slightly hungry after that devastating NCAA Tournament loss to UConn in the Elite Eight.
Arkansas is going to be loaded, too, despite not bringing back Darius Acuff. The Razorbacks loaded up via the 2026 recruiting class as well as the transfer portal. This could be Arkansas’ most talented team ever and John Calipari is to thank.
Gonzaga is bringing in a top 20 recruiting class to go along with two elite transfers in Massamba Diop and Isiah Harwell. This could very well be a preseason top-10 team with all that talent.
Tennessee may have lost JP Estrella to Michigan, but the Volunteers are bringing in the No. 4 transfer class in the country next season. It’s going to be an entirely new team, but that team is loaded. Right now, I think people are undervaluing the Volunteers in the way-too-early projections.
UConn, too, will be loaded, but that game doesn’t count and is purely for entertainment and learning purposes so I won’t spend too much time on it right now. But the Huskies are a legit exhibition foe. Probably a top-five team next season.
To me, this is probably Izzo’s toughest non-conference schedule in over a decade.
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