Indiana’s Big Ten schedule for 2026-27 sets up a few clear pressure points, and the first one arrives right away. The Hoosiers open conference play at home against Rutgers on Tuesday, December 1, a game Indiana should expect to handle.
Rutgers finished last season 14-20 overall, and the outlook entering 2026-27 is bleak enough that the Scarlet Knights sit fourth-lowest among the 18 Big Ten teams in Bart Torvik’s preseason ratings. They haven’t been back to the NCAA tournament since 2021-22, and the trend line has only gone one direction.
That opener also fits a pattern Indiana has liked for a while. Since the Big Ten started adding early December league games in 2017-18, the Hoosiers are 8-0 at home in those matchups.
The next notable wrinkle comes in early January, when Indiana heads west. After hosting USC on Saturday, January 2, the Hoosiers will go to Eugene to face Oregon on Wednesday, January 6, then continue on to Seattle for Washington on Saturday, January 9.
This marks the third straight season the Big Ten has included Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington, and the timing of Indiana’s West Coast trip has shifted each year. In 2024-25, IU opened March out there.
Last season, the swing came at the end of January, with a double-overtime win over UCLA on January 31 followed by a loss to USC on February 3.
This time, the road trip lands just after the new year, and that may matter. Torvik projects Oregon to finish 10th and Washington 14th in the league, and both programs bring plenty of roster turnover. Indiana also gets a long holiday break and only one Big Ten game in the new year before making the trip, which could help the Hoosiers settle in before the travel hits.
Back home, January offers a stretch that could shape the season. Indiana has five home games in the month, and four of them come on weekends: USC on Jan.
2, Michigan on Jan. 16, Illinois on Jan. 24 and UCLA on Jan.
- The lone midweek game is Maryland on Tuesday, Jan.
- Those are the kinds of dates that can swing a fan base and build real momentum - but only if Indiana cashes in.
Last season, the Hoosiers let January home games against Iowa and Nebraska slip away, and those missed chances helped sink the team’s NCAA tournament hopes for the third straight year.
The back end of the schedule is where the grind really shows up. Indiana’s final five Big Ten games are Purdue, at Wisconsin, Michigan State, Ohio State and at Purdue.
That is a brutal closing stretch by any measure. The Kohl Center has been a problem Indiana hasn’t solved, Mackey Arena is one of the toughest places to play anywhere, and the three home opponents are all currently projected by Torvik to finish ahead of the Hoosiers in the league standings.
Indiana stumbled badly down the stretch last February, and that collapse was a major reason the season ended without a March Madness bid. If year two of the Darian DeVries era is going to look different, the finish has to be stronger.
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The tougher part is keeping that momentum when the competition tightens, and that is where Darius Wabbington comes in. Indiana has made the five-star recruit one of its top targets, but his decision to move up an official visit to Illinois is another sign that this fight is going to be a real one, with the Hoosiers trying to hold their ground in a recruitment that is only getting more crowded. [Read more 🡒]