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The Big 12 on Thursday announced the home/away portion of its 18-game schedule for 2026-27, pairing the Wildcats with ASU, BYU and Houston for 鈥渄ouble play鈥� games that will be played at each team鈥檚 home venue. UA will only have to play Kansas at McKale Center, after traveling to KU's Allen Fieldhouse in each of the previous two seasons.

In addition to hosting Kansas, ASU, BYU and Houston in 2026-27, Arizona will face Utah, Colorado, TCU, Baylor and UCF at McKale. The Wildcats' away schedule includes games at ASU, BYU, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Cincinnati and West Virginia.

The Wildcats' double-play games with ASU, BYU and Houston fit the conference鈥檚 scheduling protocol, which calls for all traditional rivalries such as ASU-UA to be protected while other double-play matchups are chosen to maximize media partner interest. Houston, which is again expected to challenge UA for the 2026-27 Big 12 title, has yet to face the Widlcats twice during a conference regular season.

Exact dates and times will not be announced likely until September, so it also isn't yet known if UA will be able to combine two away games on a single trip. They twice took two-game trips with a similar away schedule in 2024-25: Going to Cincinnati and West Virginia on one swing, and to Texas Tech and Oklahoma State on another.

Regardless of the exact dates and times, the Big 12鈥檚 announcement Thursday meant the Wildcats could have six Big 12 games against teams ranked in the preseason (Houston, Kansas, Iowa State and possibly BYU) on top of a nonconference schedule that includes games against likely ranked teams such as UConn, Arkansas and St. John鈥檚.

In ESPN鈥檚 updated Top 25 this month, Arizona was ranked No. 10, with Houston at No. 16, Kansas at No. 23 and Iowa State at No. 24, while BYU was listed as the last team in the 鈥渘ext five鈥� outside the Top 25.

During the 2025-26 Big 12 season, UA faced Kansas both at McKale and at KU鈥檚 Allen Fieldhouse, losing 82-78 at Kansas but beating the Jayhawks 84-61 in Tucson.

The Wildcats faced ASU, Kansas and BYU for double-play games last season, and did the same with ASU, Baylor, Texas Tech and Iowa State in 2024-25 when Big 12 teams played 20 games. The Big 12 is considering going back to 20 games in 2027-28, in part because of the extra game college teams are allowed to play overall starting next season and because of the opportunity to create more marquee matchups for fans and media partners.

UA coach Tommy Lloyd said during the conference鈥檚 spring meetings last month that he and a 鈥済eneral consensus鈥� of league coaches prefer to keep an 18-game league schedule to maximize flexibility. But Brian Thornton, the Big 12鈥檚 chief basketball officer, said a move to 20 games was on the table in part because the league will be positioning for media rights free agency in 2030.

鈥淭he more quality games, the better,鈥� Thornton said.