Minnesota men's basketball releases 2025-26 non-conference schedule
The Minnesota Golden Gophers men’s basketball team’s 2025-26 non-conference schedule has officially been released. The Gophers led by head coach Niko Medve announced their full 11-game non-conference slate on Monday morning. The announcement also includes a pair of exhibition matchups against fellow Division I opponents.
While Minnesota will begin their 2025-26 season on November 3, the Gophers will have an exhibition matchup on Thursday, October 16 against the North Dakota State Bisons and Saturday, October 25 against the North Dakota Hawks. Both exhibition games will be played at Williams Arena.
The Gophers regular season will begin with a Monday, November 3 matchup against Gardner Webb before they host Alcorn State five days later on Saturday, November 8. The Golden Gophers will hit the road for their only true road game of their non-conference schedule for a Wednesday, November 12 matchup against the Missouri Tigers in Columbia.
They’ll then return home for a pair of home games on Saturday, November 15 and Tuesday, November 18 against Green Bay and Chicago State.
Minnesota will then face San Francisco in a neutral site matchup at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on Saturday, November 22 before heading to the Acrisure Classic in Thousand Palms, California. At the Acrisure Classic, the Gophers will take on Stanford on Thursday, November 27 before facing either Santa Clara or St. Louis, one day later on Friday, November 28.
Following the Acrisure Classic, the Gophers will have their usual two breaks in early December before facing Texas Southern on Sunday, December 14. They’ll wrap up their non-conference schedule with Campbell on Sunday, December 21 and Fairleigh Dickinson on Monday, December 29.
Overall, it’s another generally weak non-conference schedule for the Golden Gophers, which in year one of the Niko Medved era is no surprise. But does feature a handful of quality opponents. Out of the 12 opponents (11 games) discussed above, seven are ranked in last year’s final RPI at 250 or above.
Missouri is the highest ranked team at 44, while San Francisco (53), Stanford (80), and then both Santa Clara (86) and Saint Louis (82) are all ranked within the top-100. It is worth again noting, the Gophers will only face one of Santa Clara or Saint Louis, meaning four of their 12 opponents are top-100 teams according to last season’s RPI
The Golden Gophers in 2025-26 under Niko Medved will look to improve upon a 15-17 (7-13) record from a season ago. The Gophers as a program have only achieved one winning season since 2019 and have not made the NCAA Tournament since 2018-19.
