'Bring it' | Louisville drops its boldest nonconference basketball schedule in years | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville men’s basketball isn’t easing into Year Two of the Pat Kelsey era. It’s diving headfirst into the fire.

The Cardinals unveiled the completed version of a high-powered 2025-26 nonconference schedule that features 10 games inside the KFC Yum! Center, six Power Four opponents, and five programs that made the 2025 NCAA Tournament, including three Sweet 16 teams and an Elite 8 finisher.

“You can’t sharpen your teeth eating oatmeal,” Kelsey said when meeting with reporters last month. “Whether it ends up being the best strategy in the world, I don't know. But that’s what we decided. Bring it.”

That decision is reflected in both the quality and the quantity of traditional heavyweights on the slate. Louisville will take on teams from the SEC (Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas), Big 12 (Cincinnati, Baylor), and Big Ten (Indiana), not to mention old rivals Memphis and Ohio Valley upstart Jackson State. The schedule includes 17 combined national championships shared among five opponents.

It also reflects a strategic response to what Kelsey sees as an unpredictable NCAA selection process – after last season’s disappointing No. 8 seed after finishing runner-up in the ACC.

“They're human beings in a room,” he said of the selection committee. “They're all going to decide what they're going to decide. That person might like the KenPom metric, that guy might like the NET. That guy might just do the eye test. They're human beings, and they're not held to a structured standard of selection.”

Kelsey’s response was simple.

“What I do want to do is make sure that when we get there, and the selection committee is looking at us, they know one thing,” Kelsey said. “Louisville didn’t duck the smoke.”

October Warmup, Big 12 Blast

The Cardinals will tip off the season on Friday, Oct. 24 with a blueblood exhibition: Kansas at the KFC Yum! Center.

“Pretty cool, isn’t it?” Kelsey said. “It’s an exhibition game. It doesn’t count on your record or anything like that. But as I mentioned, this is one of the best sports towns in the country. … Does that get you pretty fired up -- an October game against Kansas at the Yum? What I’m hoping for is about 20,000 people.”

Louisville follows with a charity exhibition against Bucknell on Tuesday, Oct. 28, benefiting Kentuckiana Friends of V.

The regular season opens Monday, Nov. 3 against South Carolina State, followed by Jackson State on Thursday, Nov. 6. Then comes the 58th renewal of its rivalry against Kentucky in the KFC Yum! Center on Tuesday, Nov. 11.

After hosting Ohio on Nov. 15, Louisville will travel to face Cincinnati on Friday, Nov. 21 in the first of three games as part of a multi-team event. The Cards will then host Eastern Michigan (Nov. 24) and NJIT (Nov. 26).

Road Tests, Rivalries, and a Valentine’s Day trip

December will test Louisville’s road toughness and regional profile. The Cardinals will face Arkansas -- coached by former Kentucky coach John Calipari and former Louisville coach Kenny Payne -- in Fayetteville on Dec. 3 as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge, then meet Indiana in Indianapolis on Dec. 6 for the third straight neutral-site showdown in the CareSource Invitational.

Back home, Louisville begins a six-year series with Memphis on Dec. 13, then travels to Tennessee — a 2025 Elite 8 team — on Dec. 16. The final pre-holiday game comes against Montana on Dec. 20.

The nonconference slate wraps with one final high-stakes test: a Valentine’s Day clash against Baylor at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

Louisville holds a 167-149 all-time record against its 2025-26 non-conference opponents. It has faced Kentucky, Cincinnati, and Memphis more than 50 times each in program history, with rivalries stretching back to 1921 (UC) and 1949 (Memphis).

This schedule, aggressive, regional, national and historical, is as much a message as a roadmap.

And if Kelsey gets his wish, the committee will hear it loud and clear.