Montana finalizes 2025-26 men's basketball schedule

It's always tough to schedule as the University of Montana. It's even more difficult when you are coming off a 25-win, Big Sky Championship season that concluded with a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

It's a problem that is certainly worth it for head coach Travis DeCuire, who, along with associate head coach Chris Cobb, has finalized the 2025-26 non-conference schedule.

"What a lot of people don't understand about the University of Montana scheduling is that the first answer is no," DeCuire said. "Whether it's high majors for guarantee games, high mids for guarantees or home-and-homes, the answer is no. They don't want to play us."

Montana will have a difficult set of D1 games this season with nearly two-thirds of their games coming against 20-win teams in 2024-25. It also features four road games against teams in the top 100 of the final KenPom rankings, two of which made the NCAA Tournament.

The Griz also host two 20-win teams inside Dahlberg Arena. The MTE in November has helped with Lamar and Oakland coming to town on Nov. 23-25. The Cardinals won 20 games last year while coach Greg Kampe led his team to the Round of 32 at the NCAA Tournament two years ago.

"I feel like our schedule gets tougher every year. I think the caliber of teams we get for our MTE has continued to strengthen in terms of teams that are coming off winning seasons," DeCuire said. "Lamar and Oakland are two winning teams, potentially looking at the NCAA Tournament, so it makes that tournament very competitive."

Montana opens the season at home on Nov. 3 against Northwest Indian College. They will play Ottawa Univ. (AZ) two days later before hitting the road for the first big challenge of the year.

The Grizzlies, who have seven Californians on the roster this year, will head to the Golden State to play at Stanford on Nov. 8. The Cardinal went 21-14 in 2024-25.

"As usual, we will open up with a non-Division 1 and hit the road the first week in November to test our talent at Stanford," DeCuire said. "It's always exciting for us to take our guys to California, we always have a heavy California presence on our roster, so we typically travel really well there."

Montana then goes straight to UNLV for the first meeting with the Runnin' Rebels since 2003.

"I think that sometimes these games are very approachable for us, we go into them with a lot of confidence, but more importantly it's an opportunity to learn and grow, where are our strengths and weaknesses," DeCuire said. "We go to UNLV two days later, a place I haven't been in a long time but typically when they have good teams it's a very tough place to play."

It's a pair of good early season tests that will also give the new Grizzlies a look at what the travel schedule will be like in the Big Sky Conference.

"That kind of gives us a conference travel look where we play on a Saturday and then again on a Monday, which we will have to do in conference," DeCuire said. "It's a very similar travel timeline, so that's healthy for us."

Montana then returns home to host Cal Poly on Nov. 14. The Mustangs were 16-19 last season and are a football affiliate of the Big Sky Conference, but play basketball in the Big West.

The Grizzlies then hit the road for one of two expected ranked opponents. They go to College Station, Texas to play against Texas A&M. The Aggies went 23-11 last year and were ranked 19^th in the final AP Poll. It will be Montana's second ever trip to A&M following up an NIT game in Coach DeCuire's first season back in 2015.

"Texas A&M is very difficult for us to get to. It's a long trip," DeCuire said. "They will be very big, very athletic, and those are always the ones we look forward to because they're similar to what we would see if we're fortunate enough to get back to the NCAA Tournament. It's a chance to kind of feel out where we think we are."

Montana returns home for an MTE on Thanksgiving week, playing Lamar and Oakland. It will be the first-ever meeting for Montana against both schools.

The Big Sky-Summit Challenge is also back in 2025-26 and once again Montana will be playing some neighbors to the east. Montan hosts North Dakota State on Dec. 3, marking the fourth meeting between the two in the last four years.

The Griz then travel to North Dakota on Dec. 6 to face off against a former Big Sky opponent.

"It's funny, we call it the Summit Challenge and the reality for us is it's Montana versus the Dakotas," DeCuire said. "We end up with a lot of the Dakota schools, at least one of them every year, so it's been a good crossover for us to see like opponents in terms of how they prepare and where they see themselves every year, which is competing for championships."

Montana will then host a pair of non-D1s, highlighted by the return of Montana Tech for the third straight season, before the final road trip of the non-conference season to Louisville.

The Cardinals had a resurgence in 2024-25 under first-year head coach Pat Kelsey, going 27-8 and reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.

"Another tough travel, another tough environment," DeCuire said. "I like taking our guys east at least once or twice a year because the crowds are a lot different than what you find on the West Coast. I think good teams deserve to play in front of good crowds, so we're excited about that opportunity once again."

DeCuire said the delay in the schedule release comes from the struggle to get teams to agree to play against the Grizzlies. Montana has never had a losing season under DeCuire and is coming off 49 wins over the previous two years.

The success leads to many power conference teams wanting to avoid the Grizzlies for easier guarantee games, which delays the scheduling process.

"Typically what we do is try to fill the tournament and then fill the high major games. Once we get those contracted, we start looking at potential home-and-homes and then our non-D1 games," DeCuire said. "Well, most of those high majors aren't going to schedule us until they run out of other teams. It's usually late July or August before we get those games contracted, and that's why our fans have to wait so long before the schedule. It's not us holding on to it, it's just us waiting for teams to say yes and actually sign a contract."

It's particularly difficult to get opponents to come to Missoula. Dahlberg Arena has been very kind to Montana historically and that trend continued last year when the Griz finished 15-1 in home games with the only loss to co-regular season champion Northern Colorado.

Since 1985, Montana is 468-129 (.784) in home games. If you are an opposing coach, the history is hard to ignore.

"Like opponents are very difficult to get to come here," DeCuire said. "The tournament has helped, but over the past 40 years or so our win percentage at home has been really high, so it's not the type of trip teams are looking to take."

DeCuire also mentioned the difficulty of travel into Missoula because of its isolation from other D1 programs and the cost as hold-ups that many coaches mention.

Despite the struggles to schedule, Montana routinely provide fans with plenty of opportunities to see D1 basketball on the home floor. The Grizzlies have four D1 teams coming to Dahlberg Arena. There are 10 Big Sky teams and only three of them, Montana included, are playing more than three home D1 non-conference games.

While the competition takes place on the court and that's where the wins and losses are decided, scheduling has become more and more a numbers game for coaches to try to put themselves in the best spot for an at-large bid or a better seed at the NCAA Tournament.

"There are more reasons to say no than there are to say yes. But the reality is what's impacted our scheduling more of recent is the NET," DeCuire said. "There is a formula for the NET that gets you an at-large bid if you're a high major or high mid, so you have to be careful of your non-conference games because if play teams in the Big Sky, the WAC, the Big West, the Summit, you need to blow those teams out to increase your NET."

"If you play a team that could potentially play you close and you win by five or 10, that's actually negative in terms of your NET," DeCuire continued. "So a lot of these teams are playing companies to give them a formula for scheduling, and the formula says do not play Montana."

University of Montana Athletics

Montana finalizes 2025-26 men's basketball schedule

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