GAINESVILLE, Fla. — When a program wins the national championship it becomes a hot commodity on the scheduling front.

The Florida Gators, on the heels of their miraculous title run, apparently were a five-alarm attraction. 

The Gators’ 2025-26 schedule, which became official Wednesday when the Southeastern Conference unveiled its league-wide slate, might be the most difficult and ambitious in the program’s basketball history, but also one of the sexiest, relative to opponents, venues and the overall strength of the league (again). 

We’ve known about all the below games for some time now, but setting eyes on the finalized November-to-March lineup that includes non-conference showdowns against Arizona, Connecticut and Duke (not to mention cross-state rivals Florida State and Miami), plus a phenomenal Saturday SEC home lineup of — brace yourselves — Tennessee, Auburn, Alabama, Kentucky and Arkansas should make for some of the wildest and liveliest Exactech Arena atmospheres since … well … last season. 

Based on ESPN’s early Top 25 rankings released Tuesday, UF could face as many as four ranked teams before it begins play in the SEC, which by metrics was one of the best and deepest leagues in college basketball history last season. Five SEC teams show up in that same Top 25, with the Gators checking in the highest at No. 2, behind only top-ranked Purdue.

After losing the best backcourt in the country (and maybe the best player in Walter Clayton Jr.), the Gators will be hard-pressed to match their truckload of ’24-25 achievements, but the return of the entire front court (Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu, Thomas Haugh and Micah Handlogten), paired with the arrival of a couple high-profile transfer players (Princeton’s Xaivian Lee and Arkansas’s Boogie Fland) figures to make things very interesting. 

Again. 

Here’s a detailed look ahead, with mid-week SEC dates, times and television still to be finalized.  

Nov. 3 

vs Arizona

Hall of Fame Series at Las Vegas

Might as well get right to it. In Sin City, no less. The Wildcats, who ESPN places at No. 13 in Coach Tommy Lloyd’s fifth season, return a solid core, including four starters, from a 24-win team that reached the Sweet 16 before losing to Duke. Guard Jaden Bradley (12.1 ppg) and forward Tobe Awake (7.8 ppg, 8.0 rpg) headline the returnees, but they’ll be plenty of focus on the Wildcats’ top-five incoming freshman class — a group of six strong — headlined by a trio of five-star prospects including a pair of McDonald’s All Americans in shooting guard Brayden Burries and forward Koa Peat, plus forward Dwayne Aristode. The Gators will play their first game in Vegas since going there as reigning NCAA champs and the nation’s No. 1 team on Nov. 25, 2006 and losing 82-80 against 10th-ranked Kansas. 

Nov. 6 

North Florida 

The Gators return to Exactech Arena/O’Connell for the first time since that immortal night in San Antonio. Get your tickets now, folks, as this could be the game when they raise the 2025 NCAA championship banner. UF played UNF six times from 2016 (starting with a road date in the NIT) to 2021, then did not face the Ospreys again until last season’s 99-45 win just before Christmas break. The Gators are 11-0 all-time in the series and will be huge favorites again against a team that went 15-17 in what turned out to be the final season under Matt Driscoll, who after 16 seasons in Jacksonville bolted to become associate head coach at Kansas State. Whether the Ospreys maintain the “Birds of Trey” 3-point shooting system under replacement Bobby Kennen — 54 percent of their shots last season were from the arc, tops in the nation — remains to be seen. 

Nov. 11

Florida State 

Remember the fan base’s frustration during the Seminoles’ run of seven consecutive victories in the series from 2014-20? The longest such streak by either team in the history of a rivalry that dated to 1951? Well, the Gators have won four in a row and will be big favorites to make it five as FSU transitions from the retirement of Leonard Hamilton — 23 seasons, 460 wins, eight NCAA Tournament appearances — to Luke Loucks, who was a walk-on and eventual starter for “Coach Ham” before carving out a nine-year career as an assistant in the NBA. Florida State went into total rebuild mode, signing seven transfers and losing the bulk of potential returnees to the portal. Senior guard LaJae Jones (11.1 ppg, 5.7 rpg at St. Bonaventure) and 6-11 senior forward Chauncey Wiggins (8.3 ppg, 2.9 rpg at Clemson), along with freshman Cam Miles, out of Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy, loom as featured players for Loucks’ debut squad. 

Nov. 16 

vs Miami at Jacksonville 

Few would have predicted the team that tipped off its ’24-25 season with a come-from-behind win over South Florida at Jacksonville Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum would have been the last team standing at the Final Four. The Gators will go for some more Duval mojo when they take on the Hurricanes in the first meeting between the cross-state foes since 2019. The Hurricanes are under new management after the midseason defection of Jim Larranaga, who famously guided super-Cinderella George Mason (2006) and then Miami (2023) to the Final Four, but bailed on his team amid what became a disastrous 7-24 campaign. Enter Jai Lucas, a short-lived UF point guard back in 2007-08, after three seasons as an assistant at Duke. Lucas landed some notable transfers in forwards Malik Reneau (13.3 ppg, 5.5 rpg at Indiana) and Ernest Udeh (6.6 ppg, 7.5 rpg at TCU), along with guard Tre Donaldson (11.3 ppg, 4.1 apg at Michigan), as well as a five-man freshman class led by a couple four-star guards in Shelton Henderson and Dante Allen. Fans attending need to plan accordingly. Don’t arrive too early, what with NFL Jaguars playing at home — across the parking lot — from the coliseum. 

Nov. 21

Merrimack 

The Warriors, out of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, will play the Gators for the second time in the last three seasons. This will be their sixth season under Joe Gallo, who guided the team to a trio of league championships, but lost each time (most recently in ’24) in the tournament title game, thus denying Merrimack the lone bid in the MAAC. The Warriors return no starters from their 18-15 team of a season ago, but the Gators will need to understand that, under Gallo, the program has a reputation for defense. Merrimack was first in the nation in steal percentage and fourth in turnover percentage.   

Nov. 27-28 

vs Texas Christian, Providence or Wisconsin

Rady Children’s Invitational at San Diego 

The Gators’ first trip to California in 34 years — the one to the Elite Eight at San Francisco last March — turned out very well. Back they go, this time to SoCal, where they’ll take part in the four-team, two-game Rady Children’s Invitational at 5,000-seat Jenny Craig Arena on the campus of the University of San Diego. Only half the field reached the NCAA Tournament last season. Besides UF, Wisconsin was a 3-seed after going 27-10 and finishing second in the Big Ten before being upset in the second round by BYU. The Badgers’ roster, entering the 11th season under Greg Gard, underwent a major overhaul. Eleven players out, nine new ones in. Two starters, guard John Blackwell (15.8 ppg, 5.1 rpg) and 6-11 center Nolan Winter (9.4 ppg, 5.8 rpg), represent the returning UW nucleus. As for the other two teams in the field, Texas Christian went 16-16 last season and added freshman guard Kayden Edwards, the second-highest rated recruit in program history. Providence, which finished 12-20, also went portal heavy and added Vanderbilt shooting guard Jason Edwards (17.0 ppg). The match-ups have yet to be announced, but look for some combination with a likely Florida-Wisconsin meeting in the final. 

Dec. 2

at Duke

ACC/SEC Challenge

It’s surely just a coincidence that Duke was pegged as the only team in the last two ACC/SEC Challenges with consecutive home games, right? Yeah, right. The Blue Devils, in the later years of Mike Kzyzewski’s reign, rarely played true road games of risk. Even back in 1998, when the ascending Gators went to Durham to play in Billy Donovan’s third season, UF did so without an agreed return game. And back the Gators will go again, this time at the arrangement of ESPN, for what figures to be the showcase game of the Challenge, which the SEC dominated 14-2 last season. This one will pit half of last season’s Final Four field, though only Florida will have any familiar faces. Coach John Scheyer’s third Duke squad, led by No. 1 overall selection Cooper Flagg, had three players drafted in the top 10, five players in all. The ’25-26 Blue Devils again inked the No. 1 signing class in the country, topped by a trio of McDonald’s All Americans in the Cameron and Cayden Boozer brother tandem, out of Miami Columbus High, along with 6-8 forward Nicolas Khamenia. Backup guards Isaiah Evans (6.8 ppg) and Caleb Foster (4.9 ppg) are the top returnees. 

Dec. 9 

vs Connecticut

Jimmy V Classic at New York City 

A week after playing arguably the most anticipated game of the national non-conference season, Florida and UConn — in a game ESPN wanted desperately — will square off at Madison Square Garden in a match-up of the last three NCAA champions and rematch of their second-round NCAA Tournament classic last season, a come-from-behind 77-75 UF victory at Raleigh, North Carolina. The Huskies, who went 24-11 and were an 8-seed, are expected to debut in the top five. They return one starter in fifth-year guard Alex Karaban (14.3 ppg, 5.8 rpg), but a couple key reserves to go with a top-10 freshman class highlighted by guard Braylon Mullins and 7-foot center Eric Reibe, both McDonald’s All Americans. The game will mark the seventh meeting between the two programs since 2013. UConn had won five straight until running into vintage late-game Clayton. Huskies coach Dan Hurley, the self-proclaimed “best coach in the (expletive) sport,” didn’t handle the loss very well. Hurley and his team will have a virtual home game (and prime-time 9 p.m. audience) to exact a modicum of revenge for the Gators ending their two-year college basketball reign.

Dec. 13 

vs George Washington

Orange Bowl Classic at Sunrise, Fla. 

UF will make it’s 24th appearance in the Orange Bowl Classic, the event the Gators played in for 13 consecutive years (2006-19) but are now committed to appear every other year. Florida is 19-4 in the OBC and will take on the GWU, out of the Atlantic 10. This will mark the Gators and Revolutionaries’ first meeting since the quarterfinals of the 2016 NIT at Washington, D.C. The Revolutionaries (formerly the Colonials) return three starters from a club that went 21-13 and lost to Boise State in opening-round play of the College Basketball Crown. Their best player figures again to be leading scorer and rebounder Rafael Castro (14.0 ppg, 8.9 rpg), the 6-11 forward who totaled 10 double-doubles after transferring from Providence. The event will retain its double-header format, with Florida State facing Massachusetts.

Dec. 17 

Saint Francis 

After one of the toughest pre-league runs in the country, UF will wrap the calendar (and non-conference slate) with three opponents who finished in the bottom 160 of the KenPom.com ratings, starting with the Red Flashes, out of the Northeast Conference. They went 16-18 last season, but made the NCAA Tournament — belying their 8-8 league record — by winning the conference tournament, then defeating No. 2 seed Long Island and 1-seed Central Connecticut in the championship game. Saint Francis was awarded a 16-seed and spot in the play-in round, but lost to Alabama State. The Red Flashes’ roster basically turned over after Rob Krimmel retired and was replaced by assistant Luke McConnell, a former Saint Francis football player and cousin of Indiana Pacers guard TJ McConnell.  

Dec. 21 

Colgate 

The Raiders, in their 14th season with Coach Matt Langel at the helm, had a string of four straight Patriot League Tournament titles — and four straight NCAA Tournament berths — snapped last season when they went 14-19, including 10-8 in the conference. Despite having one of the worst 3-point defenses in the nation (37.3%), Colgate had tight games with a couple high-major foes in losing by just two at Syracuse and nine at Kentucky. That this will be the always-dangerous last game before Christmas break is worth keeping in mind. 

Dec. 29 

Dartmouth 

Welcome back from break. The last tuneup before diving into SEC play pits the Gators against the Big Green, who posted a 14-14 mark last season and went 8-6 in Ivy League play. Two of Dartmouth’s wins came against Division II opponents, but the Green also defeated Boston College on the road. This will mark UF’s first date against an Ivy foe since beating Yale at home in 2014, but Lee, the team’s highly skilled combo guard, should have some inside knowledge. 

Jan. 3 

at Missouri (SEC opener)

Dennis Gates won 25 games, including one in the NCAA Tournament, his first year at Missouri. He won just eight games and infamously went 0-18 in SEC play his second. Last season, his third, the Tigers won 22 games — and handed UF its lone home loss of the season along the way — on the way back to the tournament. This year? We’ll see if there’s a pattern. Gates returns wing and leading scorer Mark Mitchell (13.9 ppg, 4.7 rpg) along with 6-10 part-time starter Trent Pierce (6.7 ppg, 3.2 rpg). Of the five transfers, shooting guard Jayden Stone (12.0 ppg at West Virginia) comes as the most regarded, while 6-11 forward Jevon Porter (12.5 ppg at Loyola Marymount) is the younger brother of former Tigers Michael Jr. (of Denver Nuggets fame) and Jontay Porter.  

Jan. 6 or 7 

Georgia 

The Mike White subplot will be an ongoing one in the series until it’s not. Whatever. Before Georgia’s wild (and almost blown) upset of the Gators in Athens last Feb. 25 — UF’s final defeat of the season, as it turned out (more on that below) — Golden had a 6-0 mark against his Florida predecessor. Make that 6-1 now, but with a national championship. Nice tradeoff. Regarding the Bulldogs, who not only snapped a 12-game losing streak in the series dating to 2020 but used the win to catapult them to their first NCAA berth in 10 years, two key perpetrators of that defeat are gone. Forward Asa Newell (15.4 ppg, 6.9 rpg) was a first-round NBA pick and point guard Silas Demary Jr. (13.5 ppg) transferred to UConn. Georgia returns starting shooting guard Blue Cain (9.6 ppg) and 6-11 center Somto Cyril (4.6 ppg, 3.8 rpg) and signed a five-man transfer class headlined by guards Jeremiah Wilkinson (15.1 ppg as a freshman at California) and Marcus Millender (14.9 ppg at Texas-San Antonio). The team also will debut a freshman of significant Bulldogs pedigree in 6-7 forward Jacob Wilkins, son of UGA, SEC and NBA legend Dominique Wilkins. White, who went 20-13 last season, still has never had a losing record in 14 seasons in his three coaching stops. 

Jan. 10

Tennessee 

They’ve been one of the most dominant programs in the SEC the last decade. More so than even Kentucky. Coach Rick Barnes, who ranks No. 3 on the active wins list with 836 over his 38 seasons, has averaged 23.2 victories in his 10 seasons at UT, including 27.3 over the last four seasons with three top-five finishes, but with two losses in the Elite Eight the last two seasons. The Volunteers remain one of the three charter members of the SEC (along with Ole Miss and Vanderbilt) to never reach the Final Four. Once again, though, the Vols will have the personnel to break that ceiling. Not because of what they have coming back — UT lost defensive maestro Zakai Zeigler, standout shooter Chaz Lanier and the bulk of its rotation — but most notably with the arrival of 6-10, 185-pound power forward Nate Ament, a top-five national prospect and projected NBA lottery selection. Ament may be slight for the position, but he’s highly skilled and incredibly athletic. Shooting guard Amari Evans was a top-50 player and bulky DeWayne Brown, at 6-8, 250, figures to fall right into the physical Barnes low-post profile. The transfer class had only three, but all proven at their previous stops: center Jaylen Carey (8.0 ppg, 5.7 rpg at Vanderbilt), guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie (14.7 ppg, 4.8 apg at Maryland) and point guard Amaree Abram (12.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg at Louisiana Tech). This will mark just the third season since 2016 that UF and UT will play a single game at Gainesville, as opposed to five such instances at Knoxville during that time. 

Jan. 13 or 14 

at Oklahoma 

The Sooners’ inaugural SEC season started with a bang, as OU was one of three teams in the country (along with Florida and Tennessee) to go unbeaten in non-conference play. The return to earth was a hard fall. Oklahoma went just 6-12 in the league, with a run of five straight losses, but still snuck into the tournament as a 9-seed and lost to UConn in the first round. Freshman sensation and scoring leader Jeremiah Fears was a NBA lottery pick, but Coach Porter Moser has seven back from a nine-man rotation, including forward Jalon Moore (15.9 ppg, 5.9 rpg). OU lured guard Xzavier Brown (17.6 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 4.3 apg) from St. Joe’s, along with 2024 McDonald’s All America guard Derrion Reid (6.0 ppg) from Alabama, forward Tae Davis (15.1 ppg, 5.3 rpg) from Notre Dame and original NIL bonus baby (and sixth-year point guard) Nijel Pack (13.9 ppg, 4.3 apg) from Miami. Florida and Oklahoma will play for the first time in Norman as SEC competitors, although the Gators split two road games there since 2017.

Jan. 17 

at Vanderbilt 

In the first year with Mark Byington on the sidelines, the Commodores reached their first NCAA Tournament in eight years. Byington, who replaced Jerry Stackhouse, came from James Madison and flipped a nine-win program into a 20-win squad that finished tied for eight in the league. The season ended on a downer, what with four straight losses (including first-round exits in the SEC and NCAA tournaments). It didn’t help that point guard and scoring leader Jason Edwards transferred to Providence and forward Jaylen Carey headed for Tennessee, but the Commodores reloaded with guard George Kimble III (18.0 ppg at Eastern Kentucky), Duke Miles (9.2 ppg at Oklahoma), guard Tyler Harris (11.8 ppg, 5.0 rpg at Washington) and point guard Frankie Collins (11.2 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 4.4 apg at Texas Christian). The three-man Vandy freshman class didn’t register in the top 60 nationally, but they did sign a forward — get this — named Chandler Bing (see “Friends”). That should count for something.

Jan. 20 or 21 

LSU 

The Tigers were one of two SEC teams (along with South Carolina) that finished ’24-25 with a losing record and did not make the NCAA Tournament. Their prospects in the fourth season under Matt McMahon may not be much better. Jalen Reed (11.1 ppg, 6.5 rpg) is the lone starter returning, but he played just eight games during his sophomore year before suffering a season-ending knee injury and rehabbed deep into the offseason. LSU signed seven transfers, including point guard Dedan Thomas (15.6 ppg, 4.7 apg at UNLV), once a high-priority UF recruit, and 6-6 shooting guard Rashad King (18.5 ppg, 6.1 rpg at Northeastern). Four of the incoming freshmen were four-star prospects, with two from the state of Florida in shooting guard Mazi Mosley (Fort Lauderdale) and point guard Jalen Reece (Orlando). 

Jan. 24

Auburn

Golden has dealt his mentor, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl, three losses in their last four meetings, including a sweep of their two mega-clashes in ’25; on the road when the Tigers were ranked No. 1 in the nation, then again in their Final Four rematch at San Antonio when Auburn was the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament. Golden, in fact, is 3-2 in match-ups with Pearl, but the last one probably felt like 10 games (10 wins for Golden, 10 losses for Pearl). Personnel-wise, the Tigers will look nothing the ’24-25 version — they lost six of their top seven scorers, including SEC Player of the Year and first-team All-America forward John Broome, plus mercurial guard Chad Baker-Mazara (transfer to Southern Cal) — but they’ll plug and play like all of Pearl’s teams, meaning fast, aggressive and with scoring punch. The lone returning starter is guard sophomore Tahaad Pettiford (11.6 ppg, 3.0 agp), who went through the NBA eval process, pulled his name, then was arrested on DUI charges in July. He’ll be a preseason SEC Player of the Year candidate. Auburn will rebuild around an incoming class of five players, topped by 6-8 power forward Sebastian Williams-Adams and 6-7 forward Abdul Bashir, the No. 1-ranked junior-college prospect in the nation. The four-man transfer class includes guard Keyshawn Hall (15.0 ppg at his three schools over last three seasons, most recently UCF), 6-10, 245-pound forward KeShawn Murphy (11.7 ppg, 7.4 rpg at Mississippi State) and guard Kevin Overton (7.8 ppg at Texas Tech).

Jan. 27 or 28 

at South Carolina 

The Carolina crash from 2024 (when the Gamecocks won 26 games and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in seven years under SEC Coach of the Year Lamont Paris) to 2025 (last place in the league at 2-16) was excruciating. Especially with NBA lottery pick Collin Murray-Boyles doing his thing in the low post. USC lost so many close games, then Paris, entering his fourth season, lost his top six scorers. Then again, that might not be so bad after going 12-20. The very good Gamecocks team of ’24 was led by point guard Meechie Johnson, who was in his first year with the team after transferring from Ohio State, then turned around and transferred back to the Buckeyes. Guess what? Johnson is back with the Gamecocks again (Hello, college basketball in the 2020s) and USC figures to play through him. The team also lured well-travel forward Mike Sharavjamts (7.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg at Utah, one of those four-schools-in-four-year guys) and guard Kobe Knox (10.8 ppg at South Florida). The freshman class is led by Eli Ellis, a top 10-ranked shooting guard in the class.

Jan. 31

Alabama 

This time last year, Coach Nate Oats and the Crimson Tide were the talk of the SEC after going to the first Final Four in program history. Now? Yeah, Bama is going to be good again, possibly really good, but the Tide have lost four straight against the Gators, the last two coming in games at Tuscaloosa and in the SEC Tournament when Bama was ranked in the top 10. Golden and the Gators are now the hottest commodity in the league and will get a marquee home game against what figures to be a highly ranked foe. Bama, which reached the Elite Eight last season before getting pummeled by Duke, will play its first season in four without All-America point guard Mark Sears, as well as forward Grant Nelson, but returns guards Labaron Philon Jr. (10.6 ppg), Aden Holloway (11.4 ppg) and often-injured Latrell Wrightsell Jr. (11.5 ppg, 42% from 3 in just 8 games). The portal brought a trio of impact bigs in 6-10 Taylor Bol Bowen (5.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg at Florida State), 7-foot Noah Williamson (17.6 ppg, 7.6 rpg at Bucknell) and 6-10 Keitenn Bristow (11.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg and 2025 Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year at Tarleton State). The Tide’s four-man incoming freshman class, the highest-ranked in the SEC at No. 5, has a quartet of four-star recruits, including forward London Jemison and guard Davion Hannah, both top-50 types.    

Feb. 7 

at Texas A&M 

Buzz Williams played to his blueprint. Just like he did six seasons at Marquette, then five seasons at Virginia Tech, Williams did his six at College Station and bolted for Maryland, with the Aggies turning to Bucky McMillan, who went 99-52 with two Southern Conference titles and one NCAA appearance at Samford. McMillan inherited next to nothing — A&M fixture and 2,000-point score Wade Taylor IV is gone, finally — from a program that averaged 24 wins and went to three tournaments the last four seasons. The roster rebuild was significant, as in 10 transfers and one incoming freshman. Among the best of the former figure to be point guard Pop Isaacs (16.3 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 3.9 apg at Creighton), forward Mackenzie Mgbako (12.2 ppg, 4.6 rpg at Indiana) and shooting guard Jacari Lane (17.3 ppg at North Alabama), with four-star point guard Jeremiah Green the lone rook. The Gators, who will play this game coming off their mid-week bye, last won at A&M in 2020. 

Feb. 10 or 11 

at Georgia 

It had been 18 years since the Gators got court-stormed, but basketball worlds collided when third-ranked UF and basketball-challenged Georgia met in Athens, where the Bulldogs blew a 26-point lead before making the game-deciding plays in the final minute for an 88-83 upset and first win in the series since 2019. Stegeman Coliseum went berserk and rightfully so. It marked UGA’s first win over a top-five opponent since 2004. Questions: Will the Bulldogs hang a banner? Will the Gators exact revenge in their first trip back?

Feb. 14

Kentucky 

The first of two against UK after playing just once last season for the first time since 1963 (and not in Gainesville). However good the Wildcats will be in ’26 — and with a marquee freshman and transfer classes (again) they’re going to be really good — the storyline of this game will be the return of Denzel Aberdeen to the O’Dome. Just calling it like it is, the Gators don’t win the national championship without Aberdeen’s contributions as the first guard off the bench and starter for five games (all wins) during the middle of the SEC slate. No one can blame Aberdeen (7.7 ppg), who was ticketed to be UF’s PG1 in ’25-26 (and scored the last point in the 65-63 win over Houston in the NCAA title game), for taking the NIL money (reportedly $2.2 million, a once-in-a-lifetime sum for a backup) and running to Kentucky, but some bitter, unreasonable fans will, of course. What Aberdeen did for the program won’t be forgotten. As for the rest of the Cats, a projected preseason top-10 pick in their second season under offensive wiz and UK legacy Mark Pope, forward and leading scorer Otega Oweh (16..2 ppg, 4.7 rpg) will be a rare familiar face on a team reloaded with six transfers (Arizona State forward Jayden Quaintance the most regarded, though coming off reconstructive knee surgery), a top-five three-man freshman class (keyed by 7-foot McDonald’s All-America center Malachi Moreno) and  6-11 international transfer Andrija Jelaviat.  

Feb. 17 or 18 

South Carolina

The Gamecocks, at least for now, remain one of the Gators’ two permanent home-and-home conference opponents, along with Georgia. UF swept the series last season, starting with a thrilling last-second comeback on the road (See Richard, Will), and have won four of the last five. The Gators handled the Gamecocks with ease in their meeting at Gainesville.

  

Feb. 21 

at Ole Miss 

A lot of college basketball folks in the know figured Chris Beard would be elsewhere by now, but after guiding the Rebels to just their second Sweet 16 in program history (and first since 2001), Beard is back for Year 3 in Oxford, though minus his top three scorers — sharp-shooting guard Sean Pedulla, plus program mainstays Matthew Murrell and Jaemyn Brakefield — who finished up their eligibility. Back also is inside/outside forward Malik Dia (10.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg), but the rest of the rotation will come from 11 new guys; a four-man top-20 freshman class that includes power forward Niko Bundalo from Fort Lauderdale and Patton Pinkins, son of Rebels assistant and former UF associate head coach Al Pinkins; a seven-man transfer class that includes senior forward AJ Storr (10.7 ppg for his career), who in ’25-26 will achieve the portal high-major grand slam with his fourth school in four years (St. John’s in the Big East, Wisconsin in the Big Ten and Kansas in the Big 12 before).

Feb. 25 

at Texas 

Welcome to the SEC, Longhorns. After averaging 24 wins and finishing in the top half of the Big 12 Conference the three previous years, Texas finished 14th in its first SEC soiree and barely snuck into the tournament as an 11-seed. The Horns lost their play-in game at Dayton, Ohio, and that was with fabulous freshman Tre Johnson, who led the league in scoring at 19.9 points per game and was the No. 6 selection in the NBA Draft. It all led to the firing of Rodney Terry and the hiring of Sean Miller (and his plentiful NCAA baggage), by way of Xavier, the team that (ironically) ended the Longhorns’ season. The lone starter back from the 19-16 squad is guard Jordan Pope (11.0 ppg), a wildly inconsistent scorer who had three points in a loss to UConn and a week later hung 42 on New Orleans. Of the five transfers, Lassian Traore (10.2 ppg, 8.8 rpg) and Dailyn Swain (11.0 ppg, 5.5 rpg) followed Miller fom Xavier, while Mats Vokietaitis (10.2 ppg, 5.4 rpg) came from Florida Atlantic. Incoming freshman John Clark, at 6-9 and 240 pounds, was rated among the 10 best power forwards in his class. The game will mark the first true road game for the Gators at Moody Center and the first at Texas since 1997. UF won two games at arena’s predecessor, the Erwin Center, (against Northeastern State and Minnesota) in the first weekend of the 2013 NCAA Tournament.

Feb. 28 

Arkansas 

Remember that Aberdeen storyline? Well, this will be the “Boogie Fland Game,” with the Razorback-turned-Gator point guard matched against his former Fayetteville brothers, but in the friendly confines of Exactech. As for the Hogs, boy did their introductory season to “The John Calipari Experience” take a turn. The Hall of Fame coach shocked the college hoops world by bolting Kentucky for Arkansas, coaxed some Wildcats to join him, then started the SEC season by losing his first five games (six of the first seven). From there, though, Arkansas won 10 of its next 14 games — including a richly satisfying upset in Calipari’s high-stakes return to Lexington — before losing to Texas Tech in the Sweet 16, just one win shy of facing the Gators in the West Region final. … [Note: There’s a reason “Cal” ranks No. 2 on the all-time active wins list with 877. He gets really good players and figures out how to get them to play together] … Arkansas lost a couple key bigs in first-round pick Adou Thiero and transfer Zvonimir Ivisic (Illinois), as well as the graduating Johnell Davis and (and transferring Fland), but the returning nucleus is solid. Guards DJ Wagner (11.2 ppg, 3.6 apg) and Karter Knox (8.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg) are back, along with fifth-year forward Trevon Brazile (6.8 ppg, 5.4 rpg). The transfer class includes much-traveled 6-10 Nick Pringle (9.5 ppg, 6.3 rpg at South Carolina) on his third SEC team in three seasons (Alabama in ’22-23 and Wofford before that), plus 6-11 Malque Ewin (14.2 ppg, 7.6 rpg at FSU). Of course, no Calipari class would be complete with a couple McDonald’s All Americans. Say hello to point guard Darius Acuff Jr. and combo guard Meleek Thomas, both of whom should make this a very athletic and exciting squad. 

March 3 or 4 

Mississippi State 

Three years in Starkville, three NCAA appearances for Chris Jans, who’s won at least 20 games in each of his nine seasons (at three stops) as a head coach. The Bulldogs, though, had a losing record in SEC play and dropped six of their last eight games, with both wins coming against next-to-last-place LSU. But MSU returns a hefty portion of its 21-win squad, with six of the nine players who averaged double-digit minutes back. The best of the bunch is scoring leader and 3-point assassin Josh Hubbard (18.9 ppg), with 108 made from distance each of the last two seasons and four games of at least 30 points. Back also is forward and second-leading scorer KeShawn Murphy (11.7 ppg, 7.4 rpg), plus guard Claudell Harris Jr. Of the quiet four-man transfer class, 6-11, 250-pound center Quincy Ballard (10.0 ppg, 9.2 rpg) averaged nearly a double-double and shot 75% from the floor at Wichita State.

March 7 

at Kentucky 

The Gators return to their once-traditional season-ending date against the Wildcats (complete this time with the sappy UK “Senior Day” tradition of playing “My Old Kentucky Home”). UF opened its ’25 conference slate with a loss at Rupp Arena. The Gators made up for it. 

March 11-15

SEC Tournament

at Nashville, Tenn. 

The SEC Tournament is back at Bridgestone Arena, where the Gators’ 2025 nine-game postseason run — that included a trio of net-cutting ceremonies — commenced last March with consecutive wins over  No. 21 Missouri, No. 5 Alabama and No. 8 Tennessee en route to the program’s first SEC Tournament title since 2014 and just the fifth in its history (the second in 14 played at Nashville). The event is contracted to the Music City, an ideal venue, through 2035.

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu