Kansas State basketball fans now know who the Wildcats will be facing come conference play this upcoming season after the Big 12 released its scheduling matrix for the 2025-26 season on Thursday.
For the women, K-State will face traditional rivals Iowa State and Kansas twice and Houston twice as part of its league slate, while the men will have with home-and-home matchups with Kansas, TCU and West Virginia.
Teams will play three Big 12 opponents twice, then play the other 12 conference opponents one time, for a total of 18 Conference games.
Opponents were selected based on a combination of geography, historical results and a poll of the coaches to best balance the schedule in terms of travel and competitiveness. A full Big 12 schedule with dates, tipoff teams and television information will be released at a later date.
In addition to the Wildcat women’s home games against Houston, Iowa State and Kansas, the K-State will host BYU, Cincinnati, Colorado, Oklahoma State, Utah and West Virginia.
In combination with road games with the Cougars, Cyclones and Jayhawks, K-State will make road trips to Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, UCF, TCU and Texas Tech.
The 2026 Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship will be contested at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, March 4-8, 2025.
The Wildcats enter the 2025-26 season with the returns of fifth-year senior forward Kennedy Taylor and junior guard Taryn Sides. She will be joined transfers Izela Arenas, Jenessa Cotton, Tess Heal and Ramiya White and a freshmen class of Aniya Foy, Gina Garcia, Brandie Harrod and Jordan Speiser.
For the men, visits by NCAA Tournament participants Baylor, BYU and Iowa State, along with home-and-home matchups with Kansas, TCU and West Virginia, highlight Kansas State’s opponents for the 2025-26 Big 12 men’s basketball season.
In addition to its permanent home-and-home series with Kansas in the Sunflower Showdown, K-State will also play home-and-home series with TCU and West Virginia. The Wildcats last played the Horned Frogs in a home-and-home series in 2022-23, while they played the Mountaineers in a home-and-home series during the 2023-24 campaign.
It will be the first time in more than 100 years (1916) that K-State and Iowa State won’t play each other twice in the regular season.
In all, the nine-game home Big 12 schedule will include visits by Baylor, BYU, UCF, Cincinnati, Iowa State, Kansas, TCU, Utah and West Virginia. The Wildcats will make trips to Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Houston, Kansas, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia.
Fourteen of the 16 Big 12 teams won at least 16 games in 2024-25 with eight winning at least 20 games, including 35 wins by league champion and national runner-up Houston. Thirteen teams made the postseason a season ago, including NCAA Tournament appearances by Arizona, Baylor, BYU, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas and Texas Tech.
K-State finished the 2024-25 season with a 16-17 record, including a tie for ninth in the Big 12 with a 9-11 mark. Among the Wildcats’ 16 victories were five over Top 25 teams, including No. 3 Iowa State on the road. The team has won 61 games in head coach Jerome Tang’s tenure, including two postseason appearances.
The rest of the 2025-26 men’s basketball schedule will be released as it becomes official.
