Michigan State has added two more pieces to its 2026-27 non-conference schedule, and one of them comes against a familiar name from the Big Ten.
The Spartans announced Tuesday that they will open the season at home against Quinnipiac on Monday, Nov. 2, then host Penn on Tuesday, Dec. 29 at the Breslin Center in East Lansing. With those two games on the board, Michigan State now has seven of its 12 non-conference games or slots filled for the coming season.
Quinnipiac gives Tom Izzo another chance to line up a lower- or mid-major opponent that still brings some bite. The Bobcats, led by Tom Pecora, have been one of the stronger teams in the Metro Conference, formerly the MAAC, and they won regular-season league titles in both 2024 and 2025.
That makes this the kind of matchup that is likely to land as a Quad 4 game for the Spartans, even though Quinnipiac was 19-13 overall last season and 12-8 in MAAC play, tied for fourth. The Bobcats also went 3-0 against high-major competition last year, all on the road, and their best result was an 83-75 win at Pitt.
The other two ended in losses to St. John’s by 34 and UCF by 11.
Penn may be the more eye-catching name on the list. The Quakers are coached by Fran McCaffery, who spent 15 seasons at Iowa, and Izzo went 16-8 against him during that stretch.
Even beyond the coaching angle, Penn showed enough last season to qualify as a tough buy game. The Quakers reached the NCAA Tournament as a 14-seed before falling by 35 to Illinois in the first round.
They also took on Providence, Villanova, and Rutgers last season, losing those games 106-81, 90-63, and 70-69.
Michigan State still has five non-conference games to lock in. The count of available non-conference games for Big Ten teams used to be 11, but with college basketball moving to a 32-game schedule this season, that number is now 12.
The Spartans’ updated slate already includes Quinnipiac on Nov. 2 at home, Duke on Nov. 10 in Chicago, Tennessee on Nov. 17 on the road, Arkansas on Nov. 26 in Detroit, Gonzaga on Dec. 19 in Palm Springs, and Penn on Dec. 29 at home. Oakland is also expected to be part of the schedule, though the date for that annual game has not been announced yet.
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