MSU basketball's home, away pairings announced for Big Ten play next season

We now have a better idea of the Spartans' Big Ten basketball schedule for the upcoming season. The official home and road splits for the conference slate were revealed on Tuesday, with the Spartans getting both home and away games against Michigan, Nebraska and Maryland. The teams Michigan State will only play at home in Big Ten play are: Minnesota, Oregon, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, Washington and Wisconsin.

The teams the Spartans will only play on the road are: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Northwestern, Ohio State, UCLA and USC. The official schedule will not be released until later this summer. There will be a total of 20 conference games on the full Big Ten schedule.

26-27 B1G Opponents are SET 📆 pic. twitter. com/lXXfOwCKTC — Michigan State Men's Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) May 12, 2026 It's hard in mid-May to really determine if you're a winner or loser in the home-away pairings.

But I will say on paper there are some tough road games coming up this season. Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio State, UCLA and USC are all teams that will be expected to contend for a spot in the NCAA Tournament so those will be tough road games. Of the home games on the schedule, you could argue a bulk of those opponents will be fringe bubble teams at best so it's clear that the road slate is going to be much tougher than who Michigan State gets at home.