Near the end of his media day press conference on Oct. 12, Iowa men's basketball coach Ben McCollum was asked about his scheduling approach. 

It's safe to say the Hawkeyes are playing one of their most-challenging non-conference slates in years, and McCollum's answer was simple. 

"If you want to be a real program, that's what you're going to have to do," he said. 

There's no question that there's a lot of difficult games on this 2027 schedule, but which games are the hardest? Which games are the easiest? It's not easy to find that answer in the month of October, but we're going to break this schedule down via the system that everyone loves to hate - the NCAA Evaluation Tool, better known as the NET rankings. 

Quadrant 4 is considered the worst level in the NET, so that's where we'll start with the worst teams on Iowa's schedule. From there, we'll go all the way down to Quadrant 1 - the toughest. 

Here we go. 

Games: Lipscomb on Nov. 3, Eastern Illinois on Nov. 6, UMBC on Nov. 24, Prairie View A&M on Nov. 28, Western Illinois on Dec. 13, Bethune-Cookman on Dec. 17, South Dakota on Dec. 29

There's really not much else to say here. Like the real Quadrant 4 system the NET rankings use, Iowa's easiest games are going to be the buy games - where the Hawkeyes pay a team from a lower-tier mid-major conference to come to Carver-Hawkeye Arena. If Iowa has any trouble taking care of business in these games, it's going to be a long season. 

Games: @ Rutgers on Jan. 12, Penn State on Jan. 23, Oregon on Feb. 10, @ Northwestern on Feb. 13, Washington on March 2

It's very hard to declare who could among the worst teams in the Big Ten every year, because the league is always very competitive. Every team is capable of winning games on any given night, but if I had to pick the five "easiest" Big Ten games on Iowa's schedule, it would definitely be these five right here. 

Oregon just lost head coach Dan Altman to an abrupt retirement a few weeks ago, but this roster doesn't appear to be any better than it was last season. Penn State, Washington, and Rutgers (sending prayers to coach Steve Pikiell as he battles cancer) seem to be destined for the bottom of the league once again. Northwestern is probably the most-challenging game out of the five, but Welsh-Ryan Arena isn't exactly a house of horrors to play in. 

Games: Virginia Tech on Nov. 10, Creighton on Nov. 15, Indiana on Dec. 7, Ohio State on Jan. 2, Wisconsin on Jan. 6, Maryland on Jan. 9, @ Ohio State on Jan. 26, Minnesota on Feb. 27 

Every game from here on out is a difficult game, but if there's a set that's a tier below the hardest games, it's definitely these eight contests here. Virginia Tech (in Sioux City) and Creighton (in Des Moines) aren't going to be easy games, especially since they're very early in the season, but a heavy home court advantage at both of those "neutral" sites should help. 

As for the conference teams listed here, the game Iowa fans probably have circled on the calendar right now is the Indiana game on Dec. 7. Hoosier head coach Darian DeVries is an Iowa native and was rumored to be a candidate for the Hawkeyes' head coaching position before McCollum took the job. That's going to be a very fun December Big Ten game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. 

Games: @ Xavier on Nov. 20, @ Purdue on Dec. 1, Iowa State on Dec. 10, Alabama on Dec. 21, @ Nebraska on Jan. 16, Nebraska on Jan. 30, @ USC on Feb. 3, @ UCLA on Feb. 6, Michigan State on Feb. 16, @ Michigan on Feb. 20, @ Wisconsin on Feb. 24, @ Illinois on March 6 

Somebody may say there's too many games that fall in the hardest category, but having 12 games here is just a testament to McCollum's strong scheduling. Iowa rarely scheduled marquee non-conference games by the end of the Fran McCaffery era, but Xavier and Alabama will be fantastic tests for this team and allow the Hawkeyes to bolster their NCAA tournament resume. 

Almost every Big Ten road game landed in this section because Iowa struggled to win on the road last season (2-8 and wins were at Washington and Oregon). Getting Nebraska twice is going to be electric considering what happened in March, as will a mid-February visit from Tom Izzo and Michigan State. 

There's just simply not enough time to talk about all of these matchups, but you get the gist. The Hawkeyes' 2026-27 schedule is absolutely loaded, and it should make for a fun season inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. 

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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at [email protected]