Dan Hurley wants UConn to play one of one of most ambitious nonconference schedules ever seen next season

Hurley told CBS Sports he also hopes the Big East goes from a 20- to an 18-game schedule to free up more scheduling flexibility

Only a handful of coaches scheduled as aggressively as Dan Hurley this season. After a bumpy 2024-25 campaign that saw UConn lose as a No. 8 seed in the second round of the NCAAs to eventual national champion Florida, Hurley didn't hesitate when prepping for 2025-26. He sought out projected Final Four contenders and put six power-conference teams on Connecticut's schedule in less than a month's time — between Nov. 15 and Dec. 12 — and notably did so without playing in a multi-team event (after, of course, the Maui cataclysm a year ago). 

Five of UConn's six big non-con opponents sit in the top 20 of the AP rankings and a variety of predictive metrics. Here's where UConn's best nonconference foes land in the AP Top 25 this week: No. 1 Arizona (8-0 and UConn's only loss yet), No. 10 BYU (8-1), No. 13 Illinois (8-2), No. 18 Florida (5-4) and No. 19 Kansas (7-3). The last notable team is 7-3 Texas, which UConn hosts Friday night in Hartford. The Longhorns have been an underperformer in their first season with Sean Miller but may also prove to be an NCAA Tournament team come March. 

Hurley's scheduling ambitions have obviously paid off. Connecticut has been in the top five of the AP poll every week this season and, at 9-1, is a bona fide national title contender as it readies for Big East play. The Huskies are bearing the fruits of not being scared in scheduling up — while balancing those good opponents with Quad 4 fodder.

All of that winning has Hurley hungry for more November and December marquee matchups. In this era, scheduling six high-major non-league opponents is typically viewed as the maximum number a power-conference team will target.

But Hurley isn't satisfied. 

"It's gone so well, next year we may go to eight of these big games, and three buys, because I hate the buy games," Hurley told CBS Sports after UConn's 77-73 win over Florida earlier this week. "When I wake up the day of a buy game, I just want to go die. The anxiety, the fear that your team is — the wrecking of a loss, or just how mad you get at your team when they underestimate a scrappy, loaded mid-major team. I hate those games."

Hurley hasn't 100% committed to the eight-game high-major non-con template, but he said he'd for sure be all-in if the Big East would reduce its league inventory by two games. 

"I would love to go to 18 conference games like some other leagues," Hurley said. 

The Big 12 and SEC are on 18-game schedules, while the ACC and Big Ten play 20 intra-league games, just like the Big East. The Big East is different from the other four power conferences in basketball because it has 11 teams and is able to play a double round-robin, with every school hosting and playing against every league member. 

"You'll be able to beef up our nonconference more," Hurley said of UConn and other Big East teams' résumé chances with an 18-game league slate.

Even if the Big East stays at 20, Hurley won't necessarily stay put. UConn has been in contact with organizers of the Players Era Championship, but even if nothing comes of that, the Huskies will have no issue bulking up if they really want to chase big-time programs for big-time games next November and December. UConn is currently in discussions with multiple premier programs for future games, be it home-and-homes and/or neutral-site affairs. If Hurley does indeed increase to eight high-major non-con games, he'd be a tone-setter as college basketball increases its regular season from 31 to 32 maximum games in 2026-27.

"We could end up going to more of these type of games, less buy games, because it doesn't hurt you when you play these type of games," Hurley said. "And it's great for college basketball."

He's right about that. The sport is almost six weeks into arguably its best nonconference schedule in history. Thanks to things like the Players Era Championship and confident scheduling from Hurley, Bill Self, Jon Scheyer, Todd Golden, Dusty May, Matt Painter, Mark Few and others, there have been 40 nonconference games between ranked teams in November and December. That number will grow again next week and is pacing toward what's believed to be a record of ranked-on-ranked inter-conference matchups in a single regular season.