Arkansas basketball releases 2025-26 non-conference schedule
The Arkansas men’s basketball team officially released its 2025-26 non-conference schedule on Wednesday and it features a total of 18 teams that earned NCAA Tournament bids, nine conference champions and 22 20-win programs.
The latest additions to the schedule were non-conference games between both Samford and Fresno State. HawgBeat obtained the contracts for the Samford and Fresno State games last week.
The game against Fresno State will be played at Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock on Dec. 6, and Samford will face the Razorbacks at Bud Walton Arena on Nov. 14.
Along with those games, the Hoop Hogs will have a slew of marquee matchup in the non-conference slate. Along with Southeastern Conference play, they’ll play every team that was in last year’s Elite Eight.
What Arkansas’ non-conference slate looks like
Most of those big games will take place away from Bud Walton Arena.
The Hogs will play Duke at the United Center in Chicago, Texas Tech at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Houston at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey and Michigan State at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Michigan.
The other teams in last year’s Elite Eight were Tennessee, Auburn, Alabama and Florida. All of those teams are on Arkansas’ schedule as well.
Arkansas’ 2025-26 regular season will begin on Nov. 3 with a home game against Southern, and the Hogs will also face Central Arkansas, Winthrop, Jackson State, Queens and James Madison at Bud Walton.
Arkansas’ SEC schedule
The SEC doesn’t appear to be as loaded from top to bottom as it did last season, but there are still heavy-hitters in the conference the Razorbacks will play.
The Hoop Hogs will face Auburn, LSU and Missouri twice, once at home and once on the road. They’ll play Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt just once at home next season.
As they did last year, the Hogs will open the SEC slate with a game against Tennessee. Last year, they went on the road to Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, but this year Tennessee will be the road team and will play at Bud Walton.
The SEC Tournament will start on March 11 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
Charity exhibitions against Memphis and Cincinnati
Prior to the start of the regular season, the Razorbacks will travel just barely across state lines to Memphis to play in the St. Jude’s Tip-Off Classic against Memphis at the FedEx Forum.
That game will be on Oct. 27, and will pit head coach John Calipari against his former team. The Head Hog was the head coach at Memphis from 2000-2009 and led the Tigers to a National Championship appearance in 2008.
“First thing is, this is bigger than that game,” Calipari said on Sept. 2. “This is about what we all can do for St. Jude. But this is also about what we can do for the University of Memphis, and what we can do for this great city…(we want to honor) the guys that played here during that time, and we want to honor this city.
“I mean, this city drew Ellen and I to this job. And the diversity was part of the reason we wanted to be here and be a part of this. It’s part of the strength of this city, and it should be recognized and what St. Jude is doing to honor Fred Smith.”
On top of that matchup, the Hogs will host the Cincinnati Bearcats for a preseason exhibition on Oct. 24.
Arkansas basketball schedule
- Nov. 3 – vs. Southern
- Nov. 8 – at Michigan State
- Nov. 11 – vs. Central Arkansas
- Nov. 14 – vs. Samford
- Nov. 18 – vs. Winthrop
- Nov. 21 – vs. Jackson State
- Nov. 27 – vs. Duke (United Center)
- Dec. 3 – vs. Louisville (SEC/ACC Challenge)
- Dec. 6 – vs. Fresno State (Simmons Bank Arena)
- Dec. 13 – vs. Texas Tech (American Airlines Center)
- Dec. 16. – vs. Queens
- Dec. 20 – vs. Houston (Prudential Center)
- Dec. 29 – vs. James Madison
- Jan. 3 – vs. Tennessee
- Jan 6 or 7 – at Ole Miss
- Jan. 10 – at Auburn
- Jan 13 or 14 – vs. South Carolina
- Jan. 17 – at Georgia
- Jan. 20 or 21 – vs. Vanderbilt
- Jan. 24 – vs. LSU
- Jan. 27 or 28 – at Oklahoma
- Jan. 31 – vs. Kentucky
- Feb. 7 – at Mississippi State
- Feb. 10 or 11 – at LSU
- Feb. 14 – vs. Auburn
- Feb. 17 or 18 – at Alabama
- Feb. 21 – vs. Missouri
- Feb. 24 or 25 – vs. Texas A&M
- Feb. 28 – at Florida
- March 3 or 4 – vs. Texas
- March 7 – at Missouri
- March 11-15 – SEC Tournament
