Post updates here. I will do my best to keep a master list at the top. Here is what we know so far (home games in bold / neutral games in italics):
- November 4: St. Louis (Field of 68 Opening Day Showcase)
- November 8: Arizona State (Las Vegas)
- November 13: North Dakota State
- November 16: @Nevada
- November 19: UC Riverside (Acrisure Invitational on-campus game)
- November 23: Stanford
- November 28: TCU (Acrisure Invitational)
- November 29: Washington/Colorado State (Acrisure Invitational)
- December 14: Bradley (Jack Jones Classic)
- December 18: Kennesaw State
- Date TBD: San Jose State
Presumed games: @Yale (may have been one-off but no confirmation)
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Do we even have non-conference schedule thread?
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Looks like most of the projection systems have Bradley as a Top 100 team next year so this game makes sense. Probably similar to our Duquesne game last year.
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Of note: as of the last reporting I read, the addition of WSU/OSU will not put the WCC back into unbalanced scheduling. So the conference slate is projected to be 20 games (consistent with the major conferences now) and non-conference slates should be about 11-12 games.
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A few more games are listed on this blog which claims insider knowledge:
11/04: St. Louis (Sioux Falls) – presumably the opening game
11/23: Stanford
12/18: Kennesaw State
I’ll add the Stanford game up top and wait for more official confirmation of the other two.
Kennesaw State is a standard buy game. But St. Louis on a neutral is a legitimate opponent, especially with their new coach, Josh Schertz, having been hired away from Indiana State after orchestrating a major program turnaround there. Robbie Avila, who became a nationally beloved player last season (“Cream Abdul Jabbar” and “Larry Nerd” were a couple nicknames) transferred with Schertz and will be quite a challenge to contain: he’s 6’10" and 240 lbs but is a statistical swiss army knife with 17.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game. He shot almost 40% from three last season on 155 attempts. Expect that St. Louis game to be good exposure for the Broncos, as many will tune in to see Avila and the Billikens under a new coaching regime.
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Playing at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls is actually sort of a big deal.
Great get for the Broncos.
I recall K. Foster and the Broncos beating SLU in Saint Louis.
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The St. Louis game in Sioux Falls has been confirmed as part of a good slate of mid-major games in the Field of 68: Opening Day Showcase. I added it up top. Still waiting on a confirmation of Kennesaw State, but all of the buy games generally come in one big announcement with the rest of the schedule.
The schedule is pretty good overall. My aspiration would be to add one more former Pac-12 or highish Mountain West opponent for a home game. It would be nice to have Madsen and the Bears come to Leavey, for example.
Right now, Stanford is the only fun home game. SJSU at home will have me watching scared through my fingers again. But good one-off matchups on neutral sites is part of the game now. It sucks as a fan, but it’s what we live with.
3-4 games to go. Hoping for one more good one. Three tune-ups seems pretty standard, though I’d really rather not see Menlo College. Tune up against Sac State so we can check in with Jacob Holt who was a fun player.
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“Former Pac-12” 
- that’s crazy to see in writing.
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The D1 Docket blog has now added North Dakota State at home for 11/13. I’ll start adding these up top since they seem relatively reliable. Though oddly, the same blog makes no mention of SJSU, perhaps because no date has been determined yet. I doubt that we’d end the SJSU series after so many years, though it has been the biggest black mark in Herb’s tenure.
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SLU appears to have one sharpshooter, but looks like they lost some important players to graduation or transfer. The team had a rough year last year (12-20 overall, 5-13 in A-10 conference play), and it doesn’t look like they’ll be much better this season (lots of freshman and sophomores on the team, please some upperclassmen, many of which didn’t get a lot of PT). This game will be a “must win” for SCU if the goal is to end the season with a top-60 RPI.
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Bottom line, we need to be in the NCAA tourney this year.
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Jon Rothstein just tweeted SCU will play Arizona State in Vegas on November 8th. Time and arena TBD. Part of a doubleheader with UCLA vs. New Mexico
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This is now a schedule that can get them to the NCAA Tournament, if they can take advantage. I agree with @swig814 – the time is now. I wish ASU were in Tempe (better for the NET) but another former Pac-12 opponent is exactly what I called for and am glad that the scheduling is getting there.
Assuming that SJSU gets added eventually, we may have all of the OOC opponents at this point, possibly one more. I believe that teams can have up to 29 games before the Conference Tournaments, but MTE tournaments count as a single game. With the WCC at 18 games, there’s only room for 10 standard OOC games, plus one MTE. The Broncos are now at 9 games, plus the Acrisure Invitational.
So there’s only room for one more opponent, and I’d be surprised if it’s anyone of note. I’d love them to actually play Yale in New Haven, but that seems unlikely at this point.
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That’s a good get. Might even get me to make a trip. Any excuse to go to Vegas works for me.
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They’re also playing Bradley in Vegas on December 14th as part of the Jack Jones Classic
Just thinking about the doubleheader, the other game (UCLA-New Mexico) should be a lot of fun to watch as well. New Mexico (coached by Pitino Jr.) play a very up-tempo style and won the Mountain West last year. Definitely circling that date for a possible trip to Vegas.
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We’ve played 31 prior to the WCC tourney the past few years. I believe that’s the limit including 1 MTE.
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Source for my info, albeit a few years old:
Specifically this paragraph:
"Some teams take part in non-conference multi-team events, or MTEs, that are held in November and December. In April 2020, the Division I Council passed legislation that allows men’s basketball programs to schedule up to 28 regular-season games and participate in an MTE that has up to three games, or 29 regular-season games while participating in an MTE that has up to two games, for a total of 31 games in either scheduling option.
Teams that don’t participate in an MTE can play up to 29 regular-season games."
So I think I did misspeak: 29 games plus a two game MTE would be the limit for SCU if these rules still pertain, not 28 like I suggested above.
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Torvik has his 2025 preseason rankings up. SCU is starting in the top-100 for the first time maybe in the history of Torvik/KenPom.
Using the preseason rankings, SCU currently has 13 games against projected top-100 teams, with SLU being just outside that group. That’s the same as last season (though comparing the preseason 2025 projections with 2024 year-end results isn’t exactly apples-to-apples). There are currently two Q1 opportunities in the OOC, and three Q2 opportunities (the second Acrisure game will almost certainly be a Q2 game). Stanford and St. Louis could both make it to Q2 as well with the right breaks while others will likely break the wrong way.
Either way, the schedule is good enough to get the Broncos to the NCAA but the path is narrow. They have to get at least one of the two Q1 opportunities and take no Q3/Q4 losses. Tall order but the talent is there.
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