Louisville basketball ACC schedule 2026-27 has UNC twice, Duke at home
Brooks Holton- Louisville basketball learned its ACC opponents for the 2026-27 season Thursday.
- Headlining the slate: home-and-home series against North Carolina and SMU — plus, a date with Duke at the KFC Yum! Center.
- UofL went 11-7 during ACC play in Year 2 under Pat Kelsey and lost to Miami in the quarterfinal round of the conference tournament.
Louisville basketball's 2026-27 schedule took another step forward Thursday morning, when the Cardinals learned their ACC matchups.
Headlining the 18-game conference slate for Year 3 of the Pat Kelsey era: home-and-home series with North Carolina and SMU — plus, a date with reigning champion Duke at the KFC Yum! Center.
The ACC reverted to an 18-game schedule last season. As part of the change, teams were assigned a primary partner (in UofL's case, SMU) and a variable partner (in 2026-27, the Tar Heels) for home-and-home series. Louisville went 2-1 vs. the Mustangs and 0-1 vs. UNC during Year 2 under Kelsey.
The Cards will play 14 of the remaining 15 league members once. They will not face Notre Dame this go-around.
The home matchups are:
- California
- Clemson
- Duke
- Miami
- Pittsburgh
- Stanford
- Wake Forest
The road trips are:
- Boston College
- Florida State
- Georgia Tech
- N.C. State
- Syracuse
- Virginia
- Virginia Tech
Note: Dates and times have not yet been determined.
UofL finished 2025-26 with an 11-7 record in ACC play, earning the No. 6 seed and a first-round bye in the conference tournament at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. After beating SMU in Round 2, it fell to third-seeded Miami in the quarterfinals.
The 2027 ACC Tournament will be held at Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina, for the first time since 2023. It'll be the 30th time the venue has hosted the event.
Louisville enters Year 3 of Kelsey's tenure with sky-high expectations despite losing 11 members of last season's roster. As of Thursday morning, the Cards boasted the top NCAA transfer portal class on 247Sports' national leaderboard in addition to returners London Johnson and Adrian Wooley and freshmen Obinna Ekezie Jr., Isaac Ellis and Boyuan Zhang.
UofL's 2026-27 nonconference schedule features four opponents it played last season: Baylor, Cincinnati, Kentucky and Memphis.
The games against the Bears and the Bearcats will be played at neutral sites — although that's a bit of a stretch for the latter, considering it'll be held at Freedom Hall, Louisville's home gym from 1956-2010. A venue for the Baylor game had not been revealed at the time of publication.
The games against UK and Memphis will be true road tests, with the former set for Dec. 12 at Rupp Arena.
The Cards are also making their debut in the Players Era — a 16-team tournament that will be held Thanksgiving week at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas. They drew Texas Tech in Round 1 on Nov. 24 and will face either Oregon or St. John's (and former coach Rick Pitino) in Round 2 on Nov. 26. UofL will play at least one more game, on Nov. 27, as part of the Players Era. If it goes 3-0, it will vie for a tournament championship Nov. 28.
Finally, Louisville is expected to make its third appearance in the ACC/SEC Challenge. And, after traveling to Arkansas last December, the Cards should be in line to host this year's matchup at the Yum! Center.
Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at [email protected] and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.