Iowa Announces Men's Basketball Conference Opponents
There is a significant level of excitement for the Iowa men’s basketball team following Ben McCollum’s first season leading the program.
The Hawkeyes made their first trip to the Sweet 16 since 1999 and to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1987. In other words it was a historic season for the Hawkeyes and the Iowa fans are already excited for the 2026-27 season.
For a refresher, Iowa finished year one of the McCollum era with a 24-13 overall record. They were 10-10 in Big Ten Conference play. The Hawkeyes were 14-3 in games played at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, 3-8 on the road, and an impressive 7-2 in neutral site games.
To say that Iowa fans are excited about the upcoming season would be an understatement. Hawkeye fans are charged up for year two of the McCollum era at Iowa and the schedule is starting to slowly come together.
There are a pair of non-conference games that are known at this point. One is a return date, where the Hawkeyes will travel to Cincinnati to face Xavier. Best guess is that game will be played sometime in early November. Also it was recently announced that Iowa will be facing Creighton in game played at the Casey’s Center in Des Moines on November 15th. Finally, there is the games against Iowa State, which will be played in Iowa City in early December.
The rest of the non-conference schedule will be rolling out of the next few months. On Tuesday the Big Ten Conference gave us a look at who the Hawkeyes will be playing in league play. Dates for the games, start times, and TV designation will be announced probably in September.
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For now, we learn who Iowa will play on the road, at home, and twice this year in the twenty game conference slate of games.
Iowa’s Two Play Opponents – Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Ohio State
Iowa’s Road Only Opponents – Away only are Illinois, Michigan, Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers, UCLA, and USC.
Iowa’s home only are Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Michigan State, Oregon, Penn State, and Washington.
Based on past experience with the west coast games, I would expect the Hawkeyes to play UCLA and USC in a single road trip with two days off in-between games.
