Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer has never shied away from giving his squad a grueling non-conference slate throughout the season, and the 2025-26 campaign will be no different. The Blue Devils are set to face five squads inside ESPN's most recent preseason top 25 rankings, and another two high-major programs that will be looming around the polls all season.
With such a young squad, the gauntlet of a non-con slate that Duke will go through can either be a blessing or a curse. Following the stretch from November to February, after the Blue Devils have played these seven marquee games, walking out with a 4-3 record or better is likely what needs to happen for the team to be in contention for a 1 or 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. That's very doable for this incoming talented squad, but this slate is no joke.
Let's rank the five best non-conference games on Duke's schedule for the 2025-26 season.
5. Duke at Michigan State - December 6th
The Blue Devils will travel to East Lansing to take on Tom Izzo's Spartans as a get-back game for MSU after Duke hosted the 2020 Champions Classic matchup between the two programs at Cameron Indoor Stadium due to COVID-19. Sparty lost its top three scorers from a season ago, but is bringing in a talented transfer class to replace the backcourt losses with Trey Fort III (14.6 ppg at Samford) and Kaleb Glenn (12.6 ppg at FAU). Jeremy Fears Jr. is set for a breakout campaign as the Spartans look to compete atop the Big 10 like last season. Izzo is also bringing back his veteran frontcourt in Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper, who are both rising seniors. Even with a depleted roster from the 2-seed that Michigan State was in 2024, Izzo always seems to get the best out of what he's got. Though MSU isn't slotted as a preseason top 25 team, a road environment in East Lansing always delivers.
4. Duke vs. Florida - December 2nd
Duke will host Florida at Cameron Indoor Stadium as part of the 2025 ACC/SEC Challenge in what could be the best game of the entire college basketball season. The Gators are poised for another national title run, ranked No. 2 in ESPN's latest top 25. Todd Golden is bringing back practically his entire frontcourt from last season's championship team, leaving the Gators likely with the best big combo in the entire country. To replace the losses of guards Walter Clayton Jr. and Denzel Aberdeen, Golden hit two home runs in the portal with Xaivian Lee (16.9 ppg at Princeton) and Boogie Fland (13.5 ppg at Arkansas). With Florida expected to remain around the top five to ten in the AP Poll all season, a win at home could be pivotal for the Blue Devils, as the squad will have already faced Texas, Arkansas, and Kansas at that point. If Duke comes out of those three contests with a 1-2 or 0-3 record, a win here will be crucial, and there's no doubt Cameron will be sold out when the Blue Devils take on the reigning national champs.
3. Duke vs. Arkansas - November 27th
Duke will take on John Calipari's Razorbacks on Thanksgiving at the United Center in Chicago, IL. Through most of the 2024 regular season, it looked like Arkansas wouldn't even be a bubble team, but a late-season burst earned the Razorbacks a 10-seed in the big dance and a trip to the Sweet 16. From that squad, Calipari returns four of his top nine scorers and landed potentially the best guard duo of the 2025 recruiting class in five-stars Darius Acuff Jr. and Meleek Thomas. Arkansas also landed Malique Ewin from Florida State, one of the top transfers from this past cycle. If the Razorbacks pick up where they left off from the 2024 campaign, they'll be fighting right at the top of the SEC standings. ESPN slotted Arkansas at No. 11 in its latest rankings.
2. Duke vs. Kansas - November 18th
In one of the Blue Devils' two games at Madison Square Garden this season, Duke will face Kansas in a battle between potentially the two best freshmen in America: Darryn Peterson and Cameron Boozer. Both are top-three recruits and are viewed as likely top-five selections in the 2026 NBA Draft. Kansas has been fairly mediocre for Bill Self's standards over the last couple of seasons, but Self acknowledged that he's never had a recruit quite like Peterson, as he's likely the best rookie to come to Lawrence since Andrew Wiggins. The Jayhawks lost practically every rotation piece last season aside from big man Flory Bidunga; however, Self is bringing in some solid veteran transfers in Melvin Council Jr. (14.6 ppg at St. Bonaventure), Tre White (10.5 ppg at Illinois), and Jayden Dawson (13.9 ppg at Loyola Chicago). With Bidunga primed for a breakout season and potentially the best two rookies in college hoops going at it, this will be a fun one at MSG.
1. Duke vs. Texas Tech - December 20th
Duke heads to MSG twice in the month of December, this time to take on the Red Raiders. Texas Tech is coming into the season as a top-ten team with potentially the best player in the country on its roster in JT Toppin. The junior averaged 18.2 points and 9.4 rebounds a game en route to earning AP Second Team All-American. The lone other key returner for Grant McCasland is Christian Anderson, who will need to take a major leap forward for the Red Raiders to be true national title contenders. McCasland landed a few intriguing transfers, mainly LeJuan Watts from Washington State and Donovan Atwell from UNC Greensboro, but TTU will need some time to get as a new squad. By late December however, it can be expected that McCasland has his group competing like true contenders. As MSG's darling team, Duke is 41-18 all-time at the arena, and is looking to continue its dominance with two more marquee matchups later this year.