UCF men’s basketball is loading up the 2026 calendar with a nonconference schedule that mixes heavyweight road trips, familiar in-state dates and a Thanksgiving stay at ESPN Wide World of Sports.
The Knights’ 14-game nonconference slate includes nine games at Addition Financial Arena, three matchups against Florida programs and two opponents that played in the 2026 NCAA Tournament. The season starts at home on Nov. 2 against Florida Gulf Coast, kicking off a five-game homestand.
Yale comes in on Nov. 6, followed by South Alabama on Nov. 10, Georgia Southern on Nov. 13 and Mississippi State on Nov.
After that stretch, UCF heads to Nashville for its first road game of the season on Nov. 20, where it will face Vanderbilt at Memorial Gymnasium. It will be the Knights’ first appearance in that building. UCF also lost to Vanderbilt last season, 105-93.
Thanksgiving week sends UCF back on the road for the ESPN Events Invitational on Nov. 25-26 at ESPN Wide World of Sports. The event includes 10 teams split across two brackets, and UCF’s opponents will be announced later.
December brings a steady run of meaningful nonconference games. Jacksonville visits Addition Financial Arena, then American comes to Orlando on Dec. 6 before UCF travels to Indiana on Dec.
- That game will be the first meeting between the Knights and the Hoosiers.
The home dates keep coming after that, with FIU scheduled to visit Orlando on Dec. 16.
Two days later, UCF plays Virginia Tech at Rick Case Arena in a neutral-site matchup. That will also be the first time the programs have met.
The Knights finish their nonconference schedule on Dec. 22 against Towson before turning to Big 12 play.
In conference action, UCF enters its fourth season in the Big 12 with an 18-game schedule. The Knights will have home-and-home series with Baylor, Texas Tech and West Virginia, while the other 12 league opponents are each on the schedule once.
West Virginia stands out in that group because it marks the third time in four seasons that UCF and the Mountaineers will meet twice in the regular season.
UCF’s home-only Big 12 opponents are BYU, Colorado, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas State and Utah. The road-only list includes Arizona, Arizona State, Cincinnati, Kansas, Oklahoma State and TCU.
Between the nonconference grind and the Big 12 slate, UCF has lined up a schedule that will ask plenty of questions before the postseason arrives.
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