Jul. 30—BROOKINGS — South Dakota State announced the women’s basketball non-conference schedule on Wednesday, and as usual, it’s a challenging one. Eight of the 14 non-conference games the Jackrabbits have scheduled are against teams that played in last year’s NCAA tournament, highlighted by a visit from the Texas Longhorns, who played in last year’s Final Four.
The Jacks will also face Duke, North Carolina, Kansas State and Creighton among others. They open the season with an exhibition against Augustana, their former North Central Conference rival from the Division II era.
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Other highlights include home-away-from home games in Rapid City and Sioux Falls, the former on Nov. 15 against Montana and the latter against Gonzaga on Nov. 20 at the Sanford Pentagon.
Last year the Jacks went 30-4, but despite a 29-3 regular season record were only able to muster a 10-seed in the NCAA tournament. Given that the Jacks have not lost a Summit League game since the 2021-22 season, the only way for SDSU to try to improve their tournament resume is through tougher non-conference scheduling, and head coach Aaron Johnston has continued to attempt to challenge his team as much as possible.
SDSU women’s basketball 2025-26 non-conference schedule
Oct. 29 AUGUSTANA (exhibition)
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Nov. 3 at Creighton
Nov. 7 RICE
Nov. 11 MURRAY STATE
Nov. 15 Montana (in Rapid City)
Nov. 20 Gonzaga (in Sioux Falls)
Nov. 27-29 Columbia, Kansas State, North Carolina (in Cancun)
Dec. 3 WEBER STATE
Dec. 6 at Northern Arizona
Dec. 10 at Northern Iowa
Dec. 14 BALL STATE
Dec. 18 at Duke
Dec. 21 TEXAS
