With Florida officially announcing their 2026-27 schedule it’s a great opportunity to spend some time diving into some teams that you might not be terribly familiar with in the non-conference portion of the season. Here are some quick notes on each of those opponents and some things to watch out for.
Jacksonville
Jacksonville is in year six under former Florida assistant Jordan Mincy, and he finds himself in a bit of a tough spot. These six years have seen a whole lot of changes in the way that college basketball works and the Jacksonville’s of the world have not been helped whatsoever. Though he has faced constant roster turnover, it was surprising to see him retain Hayden Wood, a 6’6” wing who was one of the best freshmen in the Atlantic Sun last year. After averaging 11.8 points and 3.2 rebounds while hitting 38% from three he may have had better offers, but the in-state product chose to return and he’s a player to watch for.
Florida State
Recently the Gators have dominated this rivalry, and they’ll be favored to extend the streak with Florida State’s minimal NIL roster looking much less talented on paper. If you were a high-major player who didn’t see the floor much–there was a home for you in Tallahassee. Their roster is loaded with transfers from other power conferences who have proven themselves to be capable of playing at the highest level while not getting many opportunities. It feels like this approach should make for a decent floor for Florida State, but they don’t have much star power.
Merrimack
This will be the third consecutive year that the Gators have taken on Merrimack, a team coached by Joe Gallo who could be off to a much bigger job after this season. Merrimack is known for their 2-3 zone which they play essentially 100% of the time, so the Gators will know what to prepare for.
Notre Dame
Notre Dame has fallen into relative irrelevancy in college basketball, coming nowhere close to making the NCAA Tournament in recent years while also not being so bad as to get a ton of criticism. This could be a make or break year for Micah Shrewsberry who has had losing ACC records in his three seasons with the Fighting Irish. The roster boasts a few Ivy League up-transfers, and is led by Braeden Shrewsberry who has given his father’s team a chance by staying in South Bend.
Milwaukee
The Panthers were expected to compete for a Horizon League title going into last season but had horrific luck with injuries, dropping body after body and never really being at full strength. Versatile 6’7” wing Chandler Jackson is a key returning piece to watch out for, and with Milwaukee also bringing in some high-major down-transfers they’ll hope to have a chance to compete for the Horizon title like they were supposed to last season.
Duke
Florida and Duke will be the number one and number two teams in the preseason AP Poll, so now the only question is if those numbers hold until December when they meet. What more is there to say? This is marquee stuff.
Vermont
The name you need to know is “Gus Bus” Gus Yalden, who is one of the archetypes of players that people in college basketball love–a 6’9”, 260 pound below the rim playmaking big who has excellent creativity and skill without conventional athleticism or explosiveness. It’s somewhat of a shot that this America East Conference Jokic-type returned after averaging 16.1 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, but it’s always cool to see these players return to the mid-major level and anyone who sees this guy play will love him.
Florida A&M
The Rattlers are coached by Charlie Ward, yes–that Charlie Ward. The former Heisman winning football player started his coaching career last season and had a decent showing in the SWAC, and we’ll really see what he has cooking in year two.
LIU
Things couldn’t have gone much better for LIU last year as they drastically overachieved preseason expectations to win the NEC and make it to the NCAA Tournament last year, and they have drastically upgraded their talent this year, possibly by a massive margin. That’s because it was just announced that Matt and Ryan Bewley are eligible, and if you don’t remember who they are–allow me to catch you up. The Bewley twins were former 5-star recruits from the state of Florida, and the Gators recruited both. Originally in the class of 2021, they were early adopters of the Overtime Elite program, and thought at the time they would be able to retain their college eligibility. They were ruled ineligible and have fought every year for eligibility, including signing at Chicago State at one point before being ruled ineligible. They instead spent multiple years at the JUCO level where they certainly did not dominate in the way you’d expect from former 5-stars, but we will see what happens this year.
Florida will have further non-conference opponents announced, as well as a few more marquee matchups in Vegas based on how they play against Notre Dame.