Another Top 25 team has been added to the Kentucky men’s basketball schedule
Kentucky’s opponent for the fourth edition of the ACC/SEC Challenge men’s basketball series has been officially announced, and it won’t be an easy matchup for Mark Pope’s team.
The Cats will play Virginia on the road during the 2026-27 season, adding yet another ranked opponent to a schedule that is shaping up as one of the most difficult in the country. The game is set for Dec. 2, the second night of this year’s challenge.
The Cavaliers are No. 10 in the new CBS Sports preseason rankings and No. 14 in ESPN’s latest Top 25 list for next season. The program is entering its second year under head coach Ryan Odom, who led Virginia to a remarkable turnaround with a 30-6 record during the 2025-26 season. The Cavaliers were 15-17 the previous season.
Odom’s first Virginia team also earned a 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, advancing to the second round with the program’s first March Madness victory since coach Tony Bennett led the program to the national championship in 2019. Bennett retired just before the start of the 2024-25 season after 15 years in charge.
Odom, 51, has now taken four different schools to the NCAA Tournament. Before coming to Virginia, he was best known for coaching the UMBC team that defeated Virginia in the 2018 NCAA Tournament, becoming the first 16 seed to upset a 1 seed in March Madness play. Odom has also coached at Utah State and VCU.
He appears to have another formidable squad for his second season in Charlottesville.
Virginia will return four of its top six scorers from last season, a group that includes Belgian forward Thijs De Ridder, who led the Cavaliers with 15.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game in his first year of college basketball.
Duke, at No. 2 nationally, is the only ACC team ahead of Virginia in the CBS Sports preseason rankings, making this one of the toughest matchups Kentucky could’ve drawn in this season’s challenge.
Florida, the No. 1 team in the preseason rankings, will host Duke as part of this year’s interconference series. The Blue Devils defeated the Gators 67-66 at Cameron Indoor Stadium in one of the marquee ACC/SEC Challenge games last season, a battle of two teams that went on to earn 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.
Other highlights for this year’s challenge include Texas at Louisville (both teams are in the CBS preseason top 15), Alabama at Miami (both are on preseason Top 25 lists) and Arkansas at North Carolina (another projected Top 25 battle).
This will be the first time since 1965 that Kentucky will play on Virginia’s home court. The Cavaliers moved into John Paul Jones Arena in 2006, and that building has a capacity of 14,593. UVA had a 16-1 home record last season.
UK leads the all-time series with Virginia 6-3, but this will be just the second game between the two teams in 60 years. The Cavaliers beat the Cats in the 2002 Maui Invitational, the first time the two sides had played since UK hosted UVA in Memorial Coliseum in 1966.
Kentucky beat Miami in Rupp Arena in the first edition of the ACC/SEC Challenge. The Cats lost at Clemson in Year 2 and were defeated by North Carolina in Rupp last season.
With the addition of Virginia, the 2026-27 schedule has grown even more difficult.
Kentucky’s slate already included four other nonconference games against teams in the CBS Sports preseason rankings, and three of those will be played away from Lexington, too.
UK is set to face Kansas — No. 23 in ESPN’s rankings and 26th on the CBS Top 25 (and one) list — on Nov. 10 in the Champions Classic in Chicago. The Cats will play Indiana (No. 22 on the CBS list) on Nov. 20 in Indianapolis, as well as a home game against No. 15 Louisville on Dec. 12 and a matchup with No. 24 North Carolina on Dec. 19 in Madison Square Garden in New York.
CBS also includes six other SEC teams in its early Top 25, and it’s possible that Kentucky could play as many as nine league games against opponents in those preseason rankings.
Pope has faced daunting schedules in each of his first two seasons in charge of the program. According to the KenPom ratings, UK was No. 4 nationally in strength of schedule last season and No. 3 in the country the year before that.
The full 2026-27 schedule will be released later this year.
