Kentucky had added five non-conference games to 2025-26 schedule

Kentucky's non-conference schedule for next season is going to end up as one of the toughest in all of college basketball, with marquee matchups all around. On Friday, UK announced five more games that were added to the 2025-26 non-conference schedule, with all of them inside Rupp Arena.

The Wildcats will welcome Loyola University Maryland on Nov. 21. Then, Kentucky will welcome former Wildcat John Pelphrey and his Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles into Rupp Arena on Nov. 26, a homecoming for Pelphrey, who played at Kentucky under former head coaches Eddie Sutton (1988-89) and Rick Pitino from 1989-90 until the 1991-92 season, after redshirting his freshman year. The former All-SEC forward will certainly be looking forward to his warm welcome in Lexington. UK also announced games against North Carolina Central on Dec. 9, Indiana on Dec. 13 and Bellarmine on Dec. 23.

The matchup with the Hoosiers is certainly the highlight of the five games that were added on Friday, which will begin a four-year series of games against each other, traveling to Lucas Oil Stadium on Dec. 26, 2026 before coming back to Rupp Arena on Dec. 18, 2027 and then heading to Assembly Hall on Dec. 16, 2028 to close out the series. That will be Kentucky's first trip to Bloomington since the 2011-12 season. Kentucky's tough non-conference schedule for the upcoming season includes highly-anticipated matchups with Louisville (Nov. 11), Michigan State (Nov. 18), Gonzaga (Dec. 5), Indiana (Dec. 13) and St. John's (Dec. 20). The Wildcats are still waiting for their SEC/ACC Challenge opponent to be announced.

Kentucky's non-conference schedule is the perfect test before conference play and is likely going to end up being one of the toughest in college basketball next season.