Cal’s 2026-27 basketball schedules are out, and both programs are headed into seasons that should tell us plenty about where they really stand.
For Mark Madsen’s men, the nonconference slate looks a lot more demanding than last year’s. That softer opening helped Cal sprint to a 12-1 start before ACC play, but this time the Bears will have to earn their way into conference season.
The headliner comes early: a November 8 meeting with national title contender Houston in Lake Tahoe. It will be Cal’s third game of the year, following home dates with Adams State and Radford in the first week of November.
The Bears also will see Minnesota in Sioux Falls, go to Utah to finish the home-and-home series, and host USC and Vanderbilt at Haas Pavilion. In all, this is the first time since 2013-14 that Cal will face five Power-5 opponents in nonconference play. That 2013-14 team ran through a rugged slate that included Arkansas, Syracuse, Creighton, Kansas, Missouri, and high-major Dayton, then finished 21-14 and reached the NIT.
Madsen again has a roster with plenty of new faces, so the early tests should matter. Rebounding should be a strength, but the big unknown is scoring - who steps up to replace Ames, Pippen, Camden and Bell? Even so, this schedule should give the staff a better read on the group before the league grind gets even steeper.
And that ACC grind starts fast. Cal opens conference play on December 30 with a road trip to North Carolina to face the Tarheels and Duke Blue Devils, the toughest away stretch on the schedule.
As before, all conference games are set for Wednesday or Saturday. Cal will see Stanford and NC State twice, miss Georgia Tech, and play every other league opponent once.
Duke, UNC, Miami, Louisville and Virginia are projected as the ACC’s top teams, and Virginia visits Haas during Cal’s first homestand on January 9. The Bears finish with three straight home games against Boston College, Wake Forest, and Stanford.
On the women’s side, Charmin Smith’s team is built in a way that feels familiar after last season’s successful ACC debut. In 2024-25, Cal returned four starters - Ioanna Krimili, Lulu Twidale, Marta Suarez, Michelle Onyiah - added transfer Kayla Williams from USC, got picked near the bottom of the league, and still finished 11-7 in ACC play while earning an NCAA berth.
This group brings back Lulu Twidale, Gisella Maul, Taylor Barnes, and Mjracle Shepperd, and adds transfer C Albina Syla from Rhode Island. The Bears are likely to land somewhere in the middle of the conference picture, with Warren Nolan’s current prediction slotting them ninth. Cal has enough talent to beat that number, and the schedule gives them a real chance to do it.
The exhibition slate is eye-catching right away, with UCLA and USC on the October schedule. UCLA is in a rebuild after losing its entire starting lineup from last year’s NCAA championship team, while USC brings back Juju Watkins.
The nonconference schedule beyond that is manageable. Cal’s only trip outside the Pacific Time Zone is to Hawaii for games against Hawaii and Gonzaga, and the Bears stay in California and Tahoe for the rest of the nonconference portion.
The notable dates include a December 3 home game against Texas A&M in the ACC/SEC Challenge and a December 20 matchup with Nebraska at the Chase Center.
The conference calendar is where things get serious. Cal opens ACC play on December 13 by hosting Stanford, and like last season, league games are set for Thursdays and Sundays.
The Bears will get a clear picture of where they belong by the end of January, when they will have faced six of the conference’s top teams in the first month. The road stretch starts with Notre Dame and Louisville on December 31 and January 3, then comes a home stand against NC State and Miami before a trip to Duke.
North Carolina visits Haas Pavilion on January 21. Duke and Louisville are preseason top-10 teams, with North Carolina and Notre Dame in the Top 25, while NC State, Virginia and Cal are in the next group trying to break into the league’s top tier.
In Other News...
Cal Still Has One Problem Fans Can't Ignore After Wagner
Wagner offered Cal a tune-up more than a true test, the sort of FBS-vs.-FCS matchup that can only tell you so much, especially with where it falls in the schedule. Still, there were a few useful clues to come out of it for the Bears, including the fact that Dorian Thomas is healthy enough to play after missing time in fall camp and earlier games, a development that could matter as the season wears on.
The offensive line also got a bit clearer, with Michael Klisiewicz winning the starting right tackle job over Jimothy Lewis. Even with those tidbits, though, the bigger concern remains the same one that has been hanging around Cal for a while: special teams, and particularly kickoff return defense, which continues to look like the issue fans cannot ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Tosh Lupoi Faces His Biggest Cal Test Yet Against Clemson
Tosh Lupoi is about to get a sharp reminder of just how steep the climb is in college football. Cals coach has only a handful of games under his belt at this level, and now hes preparing to send the Bears into a matchup with Clemson, where Dabo Swinney has spent years building one of the sports most durable powers.
Lupoi has made clear he respects what Swinney has accomplished, which is part of what makes this test feel so significant for Cal. For the Bears, it is less about the name on the other sideline than about how much growth they can show in their own preparation and execution when the stage gets bigger and the margin for error gets smaller. [Read more 🡒]
Cal Faces A Bowl Reality Check With Clemson Up Next
Cals 2-1 start has put the Bears in the middle of an early-season postseason debate, and the conversation only figures to get louder with Clemson coming to Berkeley next. With the 2023 Pac-12 still tied to a slate of bowl partnerships, there are enough destination possibilities on the board to keep hope alive, but not enough clarity yet to say where Cal is actually headed if it keeps playing well.
Eight experts have already weighed in, and the range of opinions says plenty about how unsettled the picture still is. Five see Cal finding a bowl landing spot, while three dont have the Bears making one at all, leaving the projection sheet split between optimism and doubt. Among the projected destinations, the Poinsettia Bowl is the one that keeps surfacing most often, but even that consensus stops short of telling the full story. [Read more 🡒]