The Duke Blue Devils are looking to make a return trip to the Final Four in 2025-26, and we now know how their journey will begin.
The Blue Devils released their non-conference schedule on Tuesday, revealing the regular season opponents they will face before ACC play begins.
But before that, Duke will play a pair of Division I exhibition games, starting with a matchup against former Blue Devil Johnny Dawkins and his UCF squad on October 21. Five days later, they’ll travel to Knoxville to play Tennessee.
The action gets started for real on November 4 when Duke faces Texas in Charlotte as part of the Dick Vitale Invitational. The Blue Devils open their home slate on the eighth with a buy game against Western Carolina.
Their first road game of the year comes three days after that when Duke heads north to play Army, Mike Krzyzewski’s alma mater, in West Point.
Duke will have plenty of marquee opportunities after that as well — a necessity given the ACC’s lackluster performance over the last few years. The Blue Devils will play Kansas in the 15th annual Champion’s Classic, this year at Madison Square Garden on November 18. Fans in the New York area will have another chance to see their team when they return to MSG in December to play Texas Tech.
Duke will also see John Calipari and his Arkansas Razorbacks in Chicago on November 27 for the CBS Sports Thanksgiving Classic. Then, the defending national champions come to town when the Florida Gators visit Cameron Indoor on December 2 for the ACC/SEC Challenge.
Then on the sixth, it’s off to East Lansing to play Michigan State. Duke’s final non-conference tuneup will be against Lipscomb on December 16.
Duke is also joining the trend of February non-conference games that seems to slowly be coming back into style in men’s college basketball with a neutral site game against Michigan on February 21.
It all adds up to a non-conference slate that features eight games against teams that made the 2025 NCAA Tournament. That includes five Sweet 16 teams and three who went to the Elite Eight.
Russell Steinberg covers Major League Baseball and the New York Liberty for ClutchPoints. A baseball and basketball lifer, he has written for Boardroom, SLAM, SB Nation, The Next, and more. He graduated from NYU in 2012 and still returns to serve as PA announcer and occasional broadcaster for the school’s basketball and volleyball teams.
