The Big Ten conference has announced the conference slate for the 2026-2027 men’s basketball season, revealing Rutgers’ upcoming opponents in the process. The team is slated to play 20 conference games next season, against 17 different opponents.
As was the case last year, Rutgers will play three different teams two times in a home-and-home series.’ These opponents include Penn State, Maryland, and Purdue. Their home and home matchups against Maryland and Penn State keep a sort of East Coast flair
in their schedule, while Rutgers vs Purdue has produced some very exciting games over the years, with the Scarlet Knights hoping to get back to the level where they can seriously challenge a powerhouse like Purdue.
Rutgers will also play 14 single-play games against different conference opponents. Their home-only slate includes teams like Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, UCLA, USC, and Wisconsin, while their away-only slate features teams like Indiana, Michigan State, Nebraska, Northwestern, Oregon, Ohio State, and Washington.
Game dates, times, and broadcast information for the 2026–27 Big Ten men’s basketball season will be announced at a later date.
Rutgers home conference matchups next season seem to be more challenging than their road matchups, as they are set to take on 6 of the 9 teams that the conference sent to the NCAA tournament last season at home, including the defending national champion Michigan Wolverines, and Illinois, who made a run to the final four. They will have 10 total matchups against March Madness qualifiers from last season.
On top of these matchups, Rutgers will play three games in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. Florida, Houston, Kansas, West Virginia, Auburn, Notre Dame, and UNLV make up the other 7 teams in their bracket.
