Here’s how you’re spending your last weeks of 2025:
University of Louisville men’s basketball has completed its 2025-26 non-conference schedule, which includes 10 games inside the KFC Yum! Center.
The Cardinals are 167-149 against their non-conference regular season opponents. Five teams featured on the schedule competed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, with three of those reaching at least the Sweet 16. UofL is slated to play six teams from the Power Four in the non-conference slate: three from the SEC, two from the Big 12 and one from the Big 10.
The regular season non-conference opponents for Louisville are both successful in the current college basketball landscape and historically legendary with 17 national championships shared between five of the programs.
Louisville has played three teams on its schedule (Kentucky, Cincinnati and Memphis) over 50 times each in the program’s history, renewing historic rivalries with Cincinnati and Memphis that date back to 1921 and 1949, respectively.
The Cardinals will first step foot on Denny Crum Court on Friday, Oct. 24 to face Kansas in an exhibition game. Louisville will then host a charity exhibition game against Bucknell on Tuesday, Oct. 28, benefitting the Kentuckiana Friends of V organization.
Louisville will officially kick off the 2025-26 season on Monday, Nov. 3 against South Carolina State. It will be the first ever meeting between the two programs. Later in that same week, the Cards will take on Jackson State in a Thursday evening matchup.
The 58th edition of the Battle of the Bluegrass will run on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at the KFC Yum! Center in the middle of Louisville’s opening home stretch. The Cardinals will play Ohio on Saturday, Nov. 15, wrapping up a four-game homestand.
On Friday, Nov. 21, UofL will take on Cincinnati inside Heritage Bank Center in downtown Cincinnati as the first of three neutral site games on the Cards’ schedule. The game kicks off a multi-team event (MTE) with the Bearcats, Eastern Michigan and NJIT. Louisville will host EMU on Monday, Nov. 24 and NJIT on Wednesday, Nov. 26 at the KFC Yum! Center as part of the MTE.
The Cardinals will travel for the 2025 ACC/SEC Challenge, facing Arkansas on Wednesday, Dec. 3 in Fayetteville, Ark. Louisville will then play Indiana in the CareSource Invitational Indianapolis – Supporting Mental Health on Saturday, Dec. 6 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. It marks the third straight season the regional foes have played in a neutral site matchup.
Louisville hosts Memphis on Saturday, Dec. 13, beginning a six-year series between the Cards and Tigers.
UofL will travel to the Volunteer State to play Tennessee on Dec. 16. The Vols advanced to the Elite 8 in the 2025 NCAA Tournament and this game will finish a two-year series with UT.
Louisville will return home to the KFC Yum! Center to play Montana on Saturday, Dec. 20 before the holiday break.
The Cardinals will finish their non-conference schedule on Valentine’s Day with a contest against Baylor at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.