Gonzaga’s 2026-27 non-conference slate keeps filling in, and the latest piece is another home date in Spokane.
Montana State announced that it will play the Bulldogs on Tuesday, Nov. 17 at the McCarthey Athletic Center. The tip time has not been set.
That matchup gives Gonzaga a third known home game outside league play, alongside New Mexico State on Nov. 7 and Eastern Oregon on Dec. 2.
New Mexico State is likely to serve as the team’s home opener.
The Gonzaga-Montana State series has been dormant for a long time. The teams last met in 1997, which came two years before Mark Few became head coach.
But the history between the programs runs deep: both were Big Sky members in the 1960s and 1970s, and they faced each other 49 times from 1963-1979. Gonzaga holds a 27-22 edge in the series.
Montana State arrives with a relatively modest NCAA Tournament résumé, having reached the event five times since joining the Big Sky in the early 1960s. Three of those trips have come in the last five years, including two under Danny Sprinkle and one under current coach Matt Logie in 2024. That team was a play-in No. 16 seed and lost before the 64-team bracket.
Last season, the Bobcats finished 18-14 overall and 12-6 in conference play, one game behind Portland State for first place. They were ranked No. 134 at KenPom and were bounced by Idaho in the first round of the conference tournament.
For Gonzaga, the schedule is already loaded. The Bulldogs can play up to 16 non-conference games this season because of the 32-game maximum and just 16 Pac-12 games.
The non-league list already includes Purdue at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Nov. 2, LSU at the Spokane Arena on Nov.
14, UCLA at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Dec. 5, Creighton in Omaha on Dec.
12, Michigan State at Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs on Dec. 19, and Duke at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Feb. 20.
There’s more on the way, too. Gonzaga is also reportedly scheduled to play Arkansas at Bud Walton Arena in an exhibition game sometime in October.
And the Bulldogs are back in the Player’s Era Festival in Las Vegas from Nov. 24-27, where they’ll face Kansas State on Nov. 24 and then either Baylor or Alabama on Nov. 25.
A third game is still to be determined, with a possible fourth depending on how the first three go.
With Montana State now added, Gonzaga has 12 games on the board. New Mexico State and Eastern Oregon are in place as well, and up to four more games could still be announced. More home buy games are expected, and a trip to Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle also appears likely, with Oregon mentioned as a possible opponent after the teams met in Portland last year.
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