Gonzaga unveils full 2026-27 schedule, will open Pac-12 season with rivalry matchup at WSU
Sep. 30—Gonzaga’s inaugural Pac-12 season is right around the corner and might feel even closer now that the Bulldogs have a full regular-season schedule to parse through.
The Pac-12 Conference revealed its men’s basketball schedule on Wednesday, allowing Gonzaga to formally announce its complete 31-game regular-season slate featuring at least 15 nonconference games and 16 more as part of the Pac-12’s double round-robin format.
There weren’t any new developments with Gonzaga’s nonleague slate, which has been pieced together over the last handful of months and includes at least 10 games against high-major opponents. The Zags could potentially play an 11th power-conference foe, and 16th nonconference game, if they qualify for the championship game at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas.
Gonzaga will have to get through a new batch of opponents to win its first Pac-12 championship, but Mark Few’s team will open conference play against a familiar foe when it travels to Pullman on Jan. 6 for the 155th all-time meeting with Washington State.
The conference home opener is scheduled for Jan. 9 against Colorado State, followed by a Jan. 13 road test at Fresno State.
Gonzaga returns home on Jan. 16 for one of its most-anticipated matchups in the new Pac-12, pitting Few against Boise State and longtime Zags assistant Leon Rice. The game also doubles as a reunion for the Few family with AJ Few, the oldest son of Gonzaga’s Hall of Fame coach, entering his second season on Boise State’s staff as a Director of Player Personnel.
After the Boise State matchup, Gonzaga will be be back on a the road for a two-game swing against Utah State (Jan. 21) and Oregon State (Jan. 24). The Aggies are targeting a fifth straight NCAA Tournament appearance under their fourth different coach and announced a sellout for the Gonzaga game two weeks before the schedule was released.
Three days later, the Zags will face another first-year coach, Oregon State’s Justin Joyner, in Corvallis, Ore. Joyner was an assistant coach for Michigan’s national title-winning team last season and had the scouting report when the Wolverines thumped Gonzaga 101-61 in the Players Era championship.
Gonzaga won’t leave the state of Washington for its next three games, hosting Fresno State on Jan. 27 before traveling to Seattle on Jan. 30 for a nonleague matchup with Oregon at Climate Pledge Arena. The Zags return home on Feb. 4 for their first-ever meeting with Texas State, which left the Sun Belt Conference to join the revamped Pac-12.
Two more intriguing road games follow for Gonzaga, which travels to play San Diego State at Viejas Arena before a return game with Boise State on Feb. 10 at ExtraMile Arena.
The Zags travel back to Spokane for a single game against Washington State on Feb. 17 before leaving for another nonconference game on Feb. 20 against Duke at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
Gonzaga will stay on the road to play Texas State in San Marcos on Feb. 25 before returning to the Inland Northwest for a two-game home swing against San Diego State (Feb. 27) and Oregon State (March 3). The team’s Pac-12 regular-season finale will take place on March 6 at Colorado State.
The Pac-12 Tournament opens just three days later at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, but Gonzaga could avoid playing on March 9, 10 or 11 if the Zags are able to secure a No. 1 or 2 seed and earn a bye to the Pac-12 semifinals on March 12. The conference championship game will take place on March 13 and air on CBS/Paramount+.
Tipoff times and television broadcast details for the majority of Gonzaga’s nonconference games, and all 16 conference games, will be announced in the coming weeks.
Under the new Pac-12 schedule, all nine teams are playing 16 games, with home and road matchups against each of the other eight schools. No team is playing three consecutive road games or four or five games on the road and every team is opening and closing its conference schedule with one home and road game across its first and final two contests.
Zags add exhibition
Gonzaga’s preseason exhibition schedule will start on Oct. 24 against Arkansas and resume four days later with a home matchup against NAIA opponent Lewis-Clark State.
A tipoff time and television details for the Oct. 28 exhibition have yet to be announced.
The Lewiston-based school has been a common exhibition opponent for Gonzaga, with the Zags and Warriors meeting as recently as 2023-24, when Graham Ike scored 24 points and Braden Huff added 21 to help Few’s team pull away for a 96-58 win.
Ferris High School product Dylan Skaife returns to LCSC’s roster after starting in all 32 games for the Warriors as a sophomore.
Source: sports.yahoo.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.