The Duke basketball program is already set up for potentially the most difficult non-conference schedule in the entire country, as the team will face off against five opponents ranked in ESPN's Way Too Early Top 25. Now, the Blue Devils know all of their in-conference opponents, as the Atlantic Coast Conference has released its full men's basketball conference schedule. Duke and Louisville are viewed as the top two teams in the conference heading into the year, with several sleeper squads that could potentially exceed their expectations. Duke will play two schools in the ACC twice this season: Louisville and North Carolina. The conference will return to an 18-game conference schedule this season for the first time since 2018-19. Each school has a primary partner that it will play twice a season (Duke's is obviously North Carolina), along with one variable partner that it will play twice in a given season. New variable partners are chosen each year. Each school will play 14 of the remaining 15 ACC schools annually.
Full Duke basketball conference schedule for the 2025-26 season
December 30th or 31st: vs. Georgia Tech
January 3rd: at Florida State
January 6th or 7th: at Louisville
January 10th: vs. SMU
January 13th or 14th: at California
January 17th: at Stanford
January 24th: vs. Wake Forest
January 26th: vs. Louisville
January 31st: at Virginia Tech
February 3rd or 4th: vs. Boston College
February 7th: at North Carolina
February 10th or 11th: at Pittsburgh
February 14th: vs. Clemson
February 16th: vs. Syracuse
February 24th or 25th: at Notre Dame
February 28th: vs. Virginia
March 2nd: at NC State
March 7th: vs. North Carolina
The ACC is looking to get back to relevance after a lackluster last few seasons, which has caused several schools to look to eventually jump ship. Last season was one of the weakest the conference has ever been, as it only got four teams into the NCAA Tournament. The only school to make it out of the Round of 64 was 1-seed Duke, which made it to the Final Four for the first time under Jon Scheyer.
Scheyer is in search for his third ACC Tournament Championship in four years as the Blue Devils' head coach.