Welcome to Division I, New Haven.
The Chargers will reportedly tip-off the 2025-26 men’s basketball season at UConn as they begin their transition from Division II to the Northeast Conference, according to college basketball insider Jon Rothstein. New Haven won’t attain full Div. I membership until the 2028-29 academic year, following the NCAA-mandated reclassification period, but the Chargers aren’t holding back in their nonconference schedule for the upcoming season.
In addition to the meeting with Dan Hurley and the Huskies, who will likely be ranked among the top 10 teams in the nation before the season, New Haven will play a full D-I schedule that includes a home game against Penn State on Nov. 8 and a full NEC league slate despite not yet being eligible for the NCAA Tournament.
UConn’s full nonconference slate is expected to be finalized by the end of next month.
The Eagle-Tribune‘s Evan Applebaum and college basketball insider Rocco Miller reported that the New Haven game will be the first in a three-game multi-team event to start the season for the Huskies. According to those reports, UConn will also host UMass-Lowell on Nov. 7 and Columbia on Nov. 10.
The Huskies are set to play one of the toughest nonconference schedules in the country with six high-major, likely top-25 games already announced. UConn is set to meet BYU in Boston on Nov. 15, then host Arizona on Nov. 19 and travel to Madison Square Garden for a game against Illinois on Nov. 28. Another road trip to Kansas on Dec. 2 will begin a home-and-home series with the Jayhawks before a rematch against reigning national champion Florida in the Dec. 9 Jimmy V Classic at MSG and a Dec. 12 home date with Texas.
UConn will fill out the rest of its nonconference schedule with games against other mid- or low-major opponents before getting into Big East play.
The Huskies are 2-0 against UMass-Lowell, winning 88-79 at the XL Center in the 2015-16 season and 97-75 at Gampel Pavilion in 2018-19. UConn is 9-2 in the all-time series against Columbia, which dates back to 1953. Columbia’s last win in the series came in 1976, but the Lions nearly pulled off a victory at Gampel Pavilion in 2017 when they pushed the Huskies to overtime but lost, 77-73.
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