The game will be played on a Tuesday night and come one week before Kentucky’s annual trip to the Champions Classic, which has been the first marquee matchup for the Cats in recent seasons.
UK will play Michigan State in the Champions Classic this year, with that game set for Nov. 18 in Madison Square Garden.
Before that, Mark Pope and the Wildcats will see their biggest rivals on the court.
The most recent edition of ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings for the 2025-26 season, which were updated Tuesday, placed Louisville at No. 7 nationally.
Coach Pat Kelsey, who will be entering his second season in charge of the Cardinals’ program, made a splash in the transfer portal this spring by adding a trio of high-impact backcourt players: Ryan Conwell (Xavier), Isaac McKneely (Virginia) and Adrian Wooley (Kennesaw State).
J’Vonne Hadley, who was the only U of L player to start all 35 games in Kelsey’s first season, will return for his final year of college basketball. Among the Cards’ other returnees will be 6-foot-10 forward Kasean Pryor, who was on his way to being one of the team’s key players this past season before an injury limited him to only seven games.
McDonald’s All-American guard Mikel Brown Jr. — a top-10 recruit nationally in the 2025 class — will also be among the newcomers for the 2025-26 season.
Louisville’s portal class is No. 3 in the 247Sports transfer rankings, and Kelsey has the highest-rated three-player group in the country this year.
Kentucky, meanwhile, is No. 11 in ESPN’s rankings for the 2025-26 season, and the Wildcats’ transfer group sits No. 4 nationally in the 247Sports portal rankings.
UK will return at least three players from Pope’s first season — Brandon Garrison, Collin Chandler and Trent Noah — and the Wildcats are also expected to bring back Otega Oweh, who led the team in scoring this past season and is currently going through the NBA draft process.
UK has won 14 of the past 17 games in the series, a run of success that began with John Calipari’s arrival as head coach in 2009.
In last season’s meeting — the first for both Pope and Kelsey as head coaches of their respective programs — the Cats beat the Cards 93-85 in Rupp Arena.
Kentucky went on to a 24-12 record, earning a 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and advancing to the Sweet 16 for the first time in six years.
Louisville ended up with a 27-8 record and earned its first NCAA Tournament berth in six years. The Cards were an 8 seed for March Madness, losing to Creighton in the first round in Rupp Arena.
Kentucky’s 2025-26 schedule
This will be the earliest edition of the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry ever and the first November game between the two teams since the 1993-94 season.
The start date for the 2025-26 college basketball season is set for Monday, Nov. 3, so UK is likely to play a couple of games against mid-major opponents before the road trip to Louisville for the rivalry matchup.
Moving the Louisville game to earlier in the schedule will clear up December space on the calendar for the Wildcats, who already have a few high-profile games for that month.
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