Tennessee men’s basketball will host Michigan State during the 2026-27 season. • The two teams have not played each other since the 2010 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight. • Coach Rick Barnes also commented on the expansion of the NCAA Tournament to 76 teams. • Barnes expressed doubt that a team from the expanded field could […]
Tennessee men’s basketball will host Michigan State during the 2026-27 season.
• The two teams have not played each other since the 2010 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight.
• Coach Rick Barnes also commented on the expansion of the NCAA Tournament to 76 teams.
• Barnes expressed doubt that a team from the expanded field could win a national championship.
Tennessee basketball will host Tom Izzo and Michigan State at Food City Center in the 2026-27 season.
The Vols’ full schedule has not yet been released, but Tennessee coach Rick Barnes revealed the news to the Big Orange Caravan crowd in Nashville on April 29.
The two programs haven’t played each other since meeting in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight in 2010. The Spartans bested Bruce Pearl’s Tennessee with a 70-69 win. The Vols have a 2-5 record against Michigan State and are 1-2 against them in Knoxville.
Tennessee already has another tough Big Ten opponent on the schedule with a matchup at Purdue on Dec. 12 as part of a home-and-home series.
Beginning next season, both the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments will expand to a 76-team field, increasing from the previous 64-team bracket.
“I haven’t thought anything about it,” Barnes said about the expansion. “I just think it’s got to happen in three weeks. I think you’ve got a three-week window there where we can capture the country. I think it’s the greatest sporting event … but I always thought too that, you can’t do away with the small-level schools, so this does still give everybody a chance to be a part of it.”
Details for the women’s bracket have not yet been announced, but the new teams in the men’s tournament will be added to what was the First Four play-in.
Barnes doubts the teams in the expanded field can make a legitimate run to the national championship.
“My whole thing is, I don’t think you can ask a national championship team to play more than six games,” he said. “I think it’s hard for any of us to go through that. But if a team can get through that, they deserve to be the national champion.”…Read more by Wynton Jackson