STANFORD, Calif. – The third season of the Kyle Smith era at Stanford begins on Nov. 2, as Stanford men’s basketball has unveiled its 2026-27 non-conference slate. The schedule features 10 home matchups at Maples Pavilion, the team’s third-consecutive trip to Palm Desert for the Acrisure Series, and two road battles.
Following road exhibitions against Santa Clara (Oct. 17) and Oregon (Oct. 25), Stanford takes on Eastern Washington (Nov. 2), Oakland (Nov. 6) and Rice (Nov. 9) to open the season at Maples Pavilion before the first trip of the season to UNLV on Friday, Nov. 13. Stanford returns home to face UC Irvine (Nov. 17) and Sacramento State (Nov. 19) the following week.
Returning to Acrisure Arena for Feast Week from Nov. 24-25, where it won a multi-team event championship a year ago, Stanford was announced as one of the participating teams in the 2026 Acrisure Series. Stanford will face Colorado in the opening round and either Grand Canyon or Saint Louis the following night, with the entire event broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
Stanford returns from Southern California to face Portland on Sunday, Nov. 29 before traveling to the SEC/ACC Challenge on Wednesday, Dec. 2 at Texas A&M.
The Cardinal finishes its non-league slate with four home battles in December against Pacific (Dec. 6), Northern Colorado (Dec. 14), San Jose State (Dec. 18) and St. Thomas (Dec. 22).
The Cardinal is set to face eight teams that finished in the NET & KenPom top-150 a year ago, including four of those teams at home. Based on Bart Torvik’s projections for the upcoming season, Stanford is projected to face only five quadrant four NET opponents and exclusively teams in the top-250.
Stanford went 20-13 last season with a 9-9 mark in the ACC, advancing to participate in the College Basketball Crown. Stanford competed in the postseason for the second consecutive season, marking its first back-to-back postseason tournaments since 2012-15.