The Big Ten finally put the full 2026-27 basketball schedule on the board Wednesday, and now Illinois knows the road it has to navigate in its push for a conference title.
The league released the conference slate for all 18 teams, with game times and TV designations still to come. For Illinois, it completes the picture on a 32-game regular-season schedule that already featured a loaded nonconference lineup and now carries a full set of Big Ten dates.
The Illini enter this stretch with a strong recent league track record. Illinois is 96-44 in Big Ten play over the last seven seasons, the most wins in the conference in that span.
The nonconference portion was already set, and it’s a heavy one. Illinois will face Texas Tech on Nov.
10, Duke on Nov. 17, UConn on Dec.
4, Missouri on Dec. 20 and North Carolina on Jan. 30.
Here’s the full Illinois schedule for 2026-27:
Nov. 2: vs. Fairleigh Dickinson
Nov. 5: vs. Penn
Nov. 10: at Texas Tech
Nov. 13: vs. Sam Houston
Nov. 17: at Duke
Nov. 20: vs. Eastern Illinois
Nov. 23: vs. Winthrop
Nov. 27: vs. Western Kentucky
Dec. 4: vs. UConn (Chicago)
Dec. 8: at Minnesota
Dec. 12: vs Penn State
Dec. 20: vs. Missouri (St. Louis)
Dec. 29: vs. Seattle
Jan. 2: at Wisconsin
Jan. 5: vs Purdue
Jan. 9: vs Ohio State
Jan. 13: at Northwestern
Jan. 16: at Maryland
Jan. 19: vs Nebraska
Jan. 24: at Indiana
Jan. 27: vs USC
Jan. 30: vs. North Carolina (Nashville)
Feb. 2: vs UCLA
Feb. 5: vs Michigan State
Feb. 9: at Michigan
Feb. 12: at Purdue
Feb. 16: vs Northwestern
Feb. 20: at Oregon
Feb. 23: at Washington
Feb. 28: vs Wisconsin
March 3: at Rutgers
March 6: vs Iowa
The Big Ten slate brings a little bit of everything: road trips to Wisconsin, Maryland, Indiana, Michigan, Purdue, Oregon, Washington and Rutgers, plus home dates with Purdue, Ohio State, Nebraska, USC, UCLA, Michigan State, Northwestern, Wisconsin and Iowa.
Illini Inquirer broke down five takeaways from the release of the Illini's conference schedule.
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