For all the complaints that people have about the “modern era” of college basketball, there’s one thing pretty much everyone can agree on: The non-conference scheduling in the sport has never been better.
We aren’t all that far removed from a time when a host of preseason top 25 teams would go for more than a month at the start of a season before facing a team with a pulse. Now, almost every team with a small number next to their name will rake on multiple legitimate tests before the calendar flips to December.
With the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll now upon us, let’s look at the first major test for each team that will carry a national ranking into the 2025-26 season.
First Big Test: Nov. 13 at Alabama
Ranked No. 1 to enter a season for the first time in program history, Purdue will almost certainly stay in that position through the season’s opening week, when they’ll face Evansville and Oakland at home. A week two Thursday night showdown in Tuscaloosa — in a meeting of what should be two of the best offenses in college basketball this season — figures to the be the first time the Boilermakers are pushed to defend their No. 1 ranking.
First Big Test: Nov. 16 vs. Auburn
Houston will host Lehigh, Towson and Oakland before heading to Birmingham for a “neutral” court matchup with Auburn in the RxBenefits Battleground 2k25. The showdown between two 2025 national semifinalists lost a little bit of shine with the abrupt retirement of Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl, but still figures to be one of the spotlight games of the college basketball season’s second week.
First Big Test: Nov. 3 vs. Arizona
The reigning national champions will waste no time jumping right back into the fire this season. Florida’s showdown with No. 13 Arizona at the 2025 Hall of Fame Series Las Vegas event figures to be the premiere contest of college basketball’s opening night. The Gators will also face Florida State, Miami, TCU, Duke and UConn all in the season’s first month.
First Big Test: Nov. 15 vs. BYU
The second Saturday of the season will be headlined by a top 10 matchup between UConn and BYU at the TD Garden for the Hall of Fame Series Boston. There will be a ton of intrigue surrounding Cougars freshman A.J. Dybantsa, but this will also be the first opportunity for Danny Hurley’s squad to prove that they’re back to national title contender status after last season’s “down” year.
First Big Test: Nov. 8 vs. Alabama
After presumably taking care of business against Quinnipiac on opening night, St. John’s will host Alabama inside Madison Square Garden on the season’s first Saturday. The two programs have squared off just four times in their history, with the most recent coming in the 1982 NCAA Tournament.
Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
First Big Test: Nov. 4 vs. Texas
You could make a case that the better answer here is Duke’s Champions Classic game against Kansas on Nov. 18, but I think Texas has enough on its roster to push the young Blue Devils in the season-opener for both teams. While this is technically a neutral court game, the Blue Devils figure to have a. sizable home court advantage in this Dick Vitale Invitational matchup in Charlotte.
First Big Test: Nov. 24 vs. San Diego State
This is another tricky one. On Nov. 11, the Wolverines will face a Wake Forest team they lost to last season in Detroit, and then will head South for a true road game at TCU on Nov. 14. If Dusty May’s team is a legitimate top 10 squad, they should handle business in both of those matchups before facing San Diego State in Vegas for the first game of their Players Era Championship run.
First Big Test: Nov. 3 vs. Villanova
What has been widely referred to as “the most anticipated basketball season in BYU history” will kick off with a bang as the Cougars face Villanova on opening night in the second game of the Hall of Fame Series Las Vegas doubleheader. Kevin Willard’s first Wildcat team is a bit of a mystery, but should provide a proper first test for A.J. Dybantsa, Robert Wright, Richie Saunders and company.
First Big Test: Nov. 11 at Louisville
The Wildcats host Nicholls and Valpo before traveling to Louisville to face their resurgent arch-rivals in the earliest Battle of the Bluegrass game in history. The first major rivalry matchup of the 2025-26 season might wind up being the most entertaining, as these loaded teams figure to play at two of the fastest paces in the sport this season.
First Big Test: Nov. 11 at Illinois
The Red Raiders should have little trouble with Lindenwood or Sam Houston State before heading North to face No. 17 Illinois in Champaign. The two teams will also play an early season game in Lubbock in 2026.
First Big Test: Nov. 11 vs. Kentucky
Pat Kelsey brought Louisville back to normalcy in year one. Now he’s looking to return the Cardinals to their expected status of national title contender in year two. Knocking off hated rival Kentucky — and snapping a three-game losing streak to the Wildcats in the process — would be a nice first step towards making that happen.
First Big Test: Nov. 14 vs. Arizona
UCLA should sleepwalk to a 3-0 start before facing arch-rival Arizona at the nearby Intuit Dome on Friday, Nov. 14 in the first of a three-game series between the pair. It still feels weird (and wrong) that this is a non-conference matchup, but hey, at least they’re playing.
First Big Test: Nov. 3 vs. Florida
Gators. Wildcats. Opening night.
Again, it’s going to be awesome.
First Big Test: Nov. 8 at Michigan State
Unlike most of the teams on this list, Arkansas has a fairly uneventful first three weeks of action. The major exception is a date in East Lansing with Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans on the season’s first Saturday. If they can bring a victory back with them to Fayetteville, the Razorbacks figure to be 6-0 heading into a Thanksgiving Day showdown with Duke.
First Big Test: Nov. 8 at St. John’s
The game against the Johnnies at the World’s Most Famous Arena kick off an absurd four-game stretch for Alabama where they’ll also face Purdue, Illinois and Gonzaga, with just one of those games (the one against the Boilermakers) being played at home.
Nate Oats wants all the early season smoke.
First Big Test: Nov. 10 vs. Mississippi State
The Cyclones should steamroll Fairleigh Dickinson and Grambling before squaring off against Mississippi State at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. T.J. Otzelberger vs. Chris Jans might be the best meeting of elite college basketball coaches that the average sports fan couldn’t pick out of a lineup.
First Big Test: Nov. 11 vs. Texas Tech
A loaded non-con schedule for the Illini starts light in week one, where they’ll host Jackson State and Florida Gulf Coast. Their first chance to backup their preseason No. 6 ranking on KenPom will come on the season’s second Tuesday when Texas Tech comes to town.
First Big Test: Nov. 25 vs. Houston
It would be something of a shock if the Volunteers were anything less than 6-0 heading into their showdown with Houston on the second night of the Players Era Championship. A meeting with Rutgers the day before could force the Vols to break a sweat, but it’s the second game of the event that everyone in Knoxville has circled.
First Big Test: Nov. 7 at North Carolina
This rematch of the 2022 national championship game is a matchup of blue-bloods trying to convince the college basketball world that they’re more realistic contenders in 2025-26 than people are making them out to be. The matchup of freshman stars Darryn Peterson and Caleb Wilson figures to be electric.
First Big Test: Nov. 16 vs. Houston
Steven Pearl’s first big test as Auburn’s new head coach is about as tough as it gets. Thankfully for him, he should have something of a home court advantage in this RxBenefits Battleground 2k25 matchup in Birmingham.
First Big Test: Nov. 11 vs. Creighton
The Zags are once again playing a loaded non-conference schedule that also features Arizona State, Alabama, Maryland, Kentucky, UCLA and Oregon. A Nov. 8 home game against Oklahoma should provide a nice barometer of where Mark Few’s team is, but the game three days later against Creighton figures to be their first major test.
First Big Test: Nov. 8 vs. Arkansas
The Spartans will face a quartet of preseason top 25 teams in the season’s opening month. The first of those is John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks, who come to town on opening Saturday.
First Big Test: Nov. 11 at Gonzaga
There aren’t many teams heading into this season with a bigger discrepancy between their human rankings and their computer rankings than Creighton. The computers, by and large, do not believe in the Bluejays. Greg McDermott’s team can prove the tech revolution is overrated with an upset win in Spokane in their second game of the season.
First Big Test: Nov. 21 vs. BYU
The Badgers have four buy games in Madison before facing BYU for a semi-road game at the Bad Boy Mowers Series in Salt Lake. This will be a Friday afternoon tilt that’s worth taking off early from work for.
First Big Test: Nov. 7 vs. Kansas
The only big game of the season’s first Friday night is this one, which will get the ESPN treatment at 7 p.m. It’s rare to see these teams at or near the back end of the preseason top 25. One will likely take a decent sized vault forward after prevailing over the other.
