UConn coach Dan Hurley’s distaste for non-conference buy games against lower-tier opposition is a well-documented. But as he revealed on a “Summer Shootaround” episode of the Eye on College Basketball podcast this week, there is an often overlooked component to his aggressive scheduling approach that is needed keep the Huskies at the forefront of college basketball.
“It’s dollars and cents really,” Hurley said. “It costs you money to pay a low-major or a mid-major to come and play you at home. It costs you money to pay them to come play you. Whereas, when you play one of these big non-conference games, you make money.”
There are plenty of big games on the Huskies’ 2026-27 non-conference slate. UConn is hosting Ohio State and Kansas, traveling to Arizona and taking on Michigan, Duke, Illinois and Virginia at neutral sites. Those seven contests will make UConn’s non-league slate one of the nation’s most challenging and most profitable.
“Now that we’re paying the players, now that we’re in rev-share, it makes sense for us as coaches to play games that are going to not cost your school money but make money for your school so that the coaches and the players are bringing in revenue and not taking money away from the school,” Hurley said.
The Huskies also have exhibitions against Syracuse, Purdue and Michigan State on the docket. All told, the Huskies will be challenging themselves thoroughly and padding their bottom line before the start of Big East play.
If the Big East has a down season, the Huskies will have a robust docket of Quad 1 results from November and December to fall back upon in formulating their postseason resume.
“You don’t get penalized for losing games like the ones we’re going to embark on in the non-conference,” Hurley said. “You don’t have to win every one of them. You just have to win your fair share of them. If you do that, you put yourself in great position, not only for getting in the tournament but from a seeding standpoint.”
In the process, Hurley’s squad will be pulling its financial weight in an era when athletic departments are seeking every possible avenue for roster funding.
