After spending the summer savoring its 2025 national championship with first pitches and award show appearances, the UConn women’s basketball team is less than 100 days away from beginning its mission to bring home a second straight title in 2025-26.

The team’s schedule will look slightly different this season with the Big East expected to expand to 20 conference games after playing 18 for the last two years. The Huskies’ nonconference slate featured 13 opponents in 2024-25, and the team already has nine confirmed matchups outside of the Big East this year, leaving just two openings still to be filled.

UConn learned its tip-off times and opponents for the Naismith Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase on Wednesday, as a change in the event’s format was announced after it was originally set to be played tournament-style. Instead, the Huskies will play two set matchups in the showcase at Mohegan Sun Arena against Michigan on Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. on FOX, and Utah on Nov. 23 at 2:30 p.m. on FS1.

Michigan is poised to become a significant player in the national picture this year after finishing last season as the No. 25 team in the AP poll, powered by rising sophomore phenom Syla Swords. The Wolverines were a 6-seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament and reached the second round before they were knocked out by 3-seed Notre Dame. Utah appeared in its fourth straight March Madness last season and was eliminated in the first round as an 8-seed. The Utes are a bit of a mystery entering 2025-26 after graduating four senior starters and losing star guard Gianna Kneepkens to UCLA in the transfer portal.

USC put out dates for its nonconference schedule on Tuesday, announcing that it will host UConn for the first time in Los Angeles since 2003 on Dec. 13. The matchup completes a home-and-home series that began in Hartford last season, where the Trojans upset the Huskies, 72-70. The programs have also faced off in the Elite Eight for the last two years, with UConn victorious in both meetings, including a 78-64 win in 2025 on the way to the national title.

USC will be without superstar JuJu Watkins after she suffered an ACL tear in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, but the Trojans still have an elite young core returning three top-60 recruits from their 2024 class, and they signed No. 1 2025 prospect Jazzy Davidson. UConn’s trip to L.A. will also be a homecoming for sophomore guard Kayleigh Heckel, who transferred to the Huskies after playing her freshman year at USC.

Several other road matchups for UConn are already set, beginning with the team’s season-opener against Louisville on Nov. 4 at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The Huskies will play South Florida in Tampa on Dec. 3, and also face Iowa in the second iteration of the Women’s Champions Classic at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Dec. 20. UConn routed Louisville, 85-52, in primetime on FOX at last year’s event, and the Cardinals will return to Barclays again this season to face Tennessee.

Though the Huskies aren’t renewing their long-standing series with championship runner-up South Carolina in 2025-26, the team still has a loaded nonconference slate with multiple dates yet to be announced. UConn will host iconic rivalry games against Tennessee and Notre Dame, and are also set to begin new series against Ohio State and Florida State at home.

The Huskies lost to both Tennessee and Notre Dame on the road last season, and the Irish’s return to Storrs will be highly anticipated after they upset UConn at Gampel Pavilion for the first time since 2013 in 2024. Florida State and Ohio State finished last season as top 25 teams after reaching the second round of the NCAA Tournament, but both lost stars in the portal — Seminoles guard Ta’Niya Latson is now at South Carolina, and Buckeyes forward Cotie McMahon signed with Ole Miss.

UConn returns the majority of its 2025 championship roster this season, headlined by redshirt senior guard Azzi Fudd and sophomore forward Sarah Strong. The Huskies signed Heckel and former Wisconsin star forward Serah Williams out of the transfer portal, and they brought in three freshmen led by No. 25 prospect Kelis Fisher.

UConn women’s notes: Geno Auriemma says Azzi Fudd, Sarah Strong got ‘even better’

Originally Published: July 30, 2025 at 10:15 AM EDT