There will be no break in the Duke basketball schedule this season but the gauntlet that Jon Scheyer is creating could show its rewards in the postseason when the Blue Devils are matched up against the best teams in the country.
He currently has six major games booked for the 2025-26 season with neutral site matchups with Texas (Charlotte), Kansas (New York), Arkansas (Chicago), and Michigan (Washington D.C.) with a trip to Michigan State and a likely road matchup in the ACC vs. SEC Challenge still to be scheduled.
Duke will also play a road game on Veteran’s Day against Army as a part of its 3-year series.
The heavy focus on the non-conference schedule shows that Scheyer and his coaching staff are expecting major changes to the ACC basketball schedule.
After many teams in the conference struggled this season and the league only sent four teams to the NCAA Tournament, there has been talk about dwindling the schedule from 20 games to 18 games.
The concept of the scheduling change was first reported by CBS Sports.
The idea behind the schedule change would be to have its school’s book more high profile non-ACC games to help its postseason resume. While Duke doesn’t fall into this category, the Blue Devils are certainly taking advantage of the chance to land elite games.
This season, Duke had five premier non-conference games and already having six games on its schedule for next season, with a possible home-and-home series still pending, shows that Scheyer is expecting this new scheduling rule to pass.
If the ACC presidents and athletic directors pass the proposal at their meeting in May, it would go into effect this season.
The maximum amount of regular season game a team can play is 31, meaning if the ACC cuts back to 18 league games it could create 13 non-conference games. The Blue Devils played six 'buy games' last season and its five major matchups.
Duke’s game against Illinois in February at Madison Square Garden was a major success and Jon Scheyer is trying to replicate that experience by playing Michigan in the middle of conference play.
While there is still a lot to be decided regarding the ACC basketball schedule, it seems like things could be trending towards an 18-game slate and the Blue Devils could be adding one more big time game to its gauntlet.