Tom Izzo is known for scheduling some of the toughest non-conference games every season as he preps his team for the looming NCAA Tournament.
He was on a different level when he put together his 2026-27 schedule.
Michigan State has games against teams like Duke, Gonzaga, Tennessee, Arkansas, and both UConn and Marquette in non-conference play. That makes for one of the toughest schedules in college basketball and everyone tends to agree that some of these games will be must-see TV.
According to a recent ranking of all 2026-27 non-conference college basketball games, Michigan State is going to be featured in three of the top 10 and one of the top five.
It’s safe to say Duke ducking ZERO smoke 😂 pic.twitter.com/cTfAL9noEX
— Donté J Harvey (@dontejharvey) July 23, 2026
If your name isn’t Duke, UConn, or Michigan State, your schedule just isn’t tough enough this year. All three programs appeared on the list at least twice and Duke dominated with all five of the top five.
Duke will face both UConn and Michigan State so that makes sense.
Did they get the top-10 non-conference games right?
I can’t argue that any of these games deserve to be omitted but I do think you can flip the third and fourth-ranked games on the list. This may just be my bias talking, but I believe that Michigan State will give Duke a better game than Michigan will under Mike Boynton Jr. this season.
No, that’s probably not my bias talking at all.
I also think Illinois at Duke should be higher on the list. Maybe flip that one with Duke vs. UConn? Illinois has a legitimate case as one of the top three teams in college basketball to start the season and that’s going to be an insane environment at Cameron Indoor.
The Arkansas game is correctly ahead of the Tennessee showdown in Knoxville because the Razorbacks are going to be Final Four good again this season. Also, you just can’t miss a John Calipari vs. Izzo matchup. These are always pretty good.
The Spartans had a lot of eyes on them during the 2025-26 season and it looks like they’re going to have even more in 2026-27. There’s not really an “easy” game on the entire schedule.
Michigan State basketball is must-see TV.
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