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Butler basketball schedules two-game series with perennial NCAA tournament team
INDIANAPOLIS — It's becoming somewhat of a rivalry over the past two seasons and will extend to home campuses.
Butler basketball scheduled a home-and-home with Boise State, a program it has met each of the past two seasons. The Bulldogs will host the Broncos on Dec. 6 at Hinkle Fieldhouse before making a return trip to Idaho for the 2026-27 season. Times and TV assignments have not yet been announced.
It's a quality addition to the schedule as Boise State has averaged 24.8 wins per season the past four seasons, and have three NCAA tournament berths in that span.
Each of the two meetings in the all-time series have happened at neutral sites. Butler's season ended April 2 in Las Vegas at the inaugural College Basketball Crown, where the Broncos won 100-93 despite a career-high 30 points from Finley Bizjack. Butler won the first meeting between the two, 70-56, to secure fifth place in the ESPN Invitational on Nov. 26, 2023 in Orlando.
The Bulldogs are headed to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia for their early season multi-team event. It was announced Tuesday that they would play South Carolina and Virginia there and avoid a second game against Northwestern, which Butler will play in the Indy Classic on Dec. 20 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The rest of the known schedule includes games against Southern Indiana on Nov. 5, IU-Indy on Nov. 8 and Chicago State on Nov. 11 all at Hinkle Fieldhouse to open the season. Butler then will conclude its home-and-home series with SMU on Nov. 15 before heading to the two-game event Nov. 21 and 23.
The Bulldogs will return home to play Eastern Michigan on Dec. 2.
Two open preseason exhibitions were scheduled against in-state opponents. Another two-year agreement was scheduled with Notre Dame and then Indiana State was added. Former Butler player Matthew Graves is in his second season leading the Sycamores.
The Bulldogs had a late addition to their 2025 recruiting class with Guerin Catholic's Bryson Cardinal, the son of former NBA forward Brian Cardinal. He's among four other freshmen heading to campus, and includes Lawrence North guard Azavier Robinson.
