Tom Izzo’s squad faces a grueling Big Ten slate featuring high-stakes road trips west and crucial home matchups against Purdue and Wisconsin to fuel a championship charge.
The Michigan State men’s basketball team might not be tipping off its 2026-27 season for quite a while, but that doesn’t mean fans can’t start learning more about what’s ahead.
The Spartans will enter the season looking to bounce back after falling short of their ultimate goals in 2025-26, ending their run in the Sweet 16 against eventual national runner-up UConn.
Still, there should be plenty of excitement surrounding this year’s roster.
Michigan State is expected to return a hungry and experienced group, including one of the top players in the country in Jeremy Fears Jr., assuming he ultimately decides to return instead of entering the NBA Draft. Joining the returning core will be four highly regarded freshmen, all of whom rank inside the SC Next Top 100 rankings.
The Spartans are already beginning preparations for the upcoming season, and now fans can start looking ahead as well. The Big Ten officially announced conference opponents and locations for the 2026-27 season, giving everyone a clearer picture of what Michigan State’s path could look like.
Michigan State will play three Big Ten teams in a home-and-home format, while every other conference opponent will be played just once, either at the Breslin Center or on the road.
The Spartans’ Big Ten home-only opponents will be:
- Minnesota
- Oregon
- Penn State
- Purdue
- Rutgers
- Washington
- Wisconsin
Michigan State’s road-only opponents will be:
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Northwestern
- Ohio State
- UCLA
- USC
The Spartans’ home-and-home opponents will be:
- Maryland
- Michigan
- Nebraska
One of the more notable parts of the schedule is Michigan State once again heading out west to face UCLA and USC. This marks the second time in three seasons that the Spartans will travel to Los Angeles. Last season, Michigan State made the trip west as well, facing Oregon and Washington in the Pacific Northwest.
The road slate as a whole will present plenty of challenges.
Michigan State will have to face all three Big Ten programs that begin with the letter “I” on the road — Illinois, Indiana and Iowa. That is far from an easy stretch, especially considering both Illinois and Iowa reached the Elite Eight last season, while Illinois advanced all the way to the Final Four.
On the flip side, getting Purdue and Wisconsin at home could prove to be massive for the Spartans later in the season. Games against those programs almost always carry major conference title implications, and playing them inside the Breslin Center could end up being a significant advantage when every late-season win feels enormous.
Washington and Oregon will both travel to East Lansing this season after Michigan State made the road trip to face them last year.
The Spartans will also continue their annual home-and-home rivalry series with Michigan, while Maryland and Nebraska round out the other two double-play opponents.
Michigan State will likely have Nebraska circled on the calendar after the Cornhuskers knocked off the Spartans in Lincoln last season on their way to one of the best years in program history, culminating in a Sweet 16 appearance.
There is still plenty left to learn about Michigan State’s full 2026-27 schedule, but the puzzle pieces are slowly starting to come together.
If the early look at the conference slate is any indication, the Spartans are once again going to be battling through one of the toughest schedules in college basketball. And with a talented returning roster mixed with another strong freshman class, expectations in East Lansing are only going to continue rising as the offseason rolls on.