Arizona and Arkansas have verbally agreed to a multi-year men’s basketball series that will begin next season with a neutral-site meeting in Phoenix. The opening game is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 19, at the Mortgage Matchup Center — the arena used by the Phoenix Suns — and will be played as part of the Naismith Hall of Fame Series. That Hall of Fame Series event is planned as a doubleheader that will also feature a matchup between UNLV and SMU. The agreement includes a payment structure that will provide each program with a payout of several hundred thousand dollars in exchange for staging the matchup away from a campus site.
Coaches from Arkansas and Arizona greet each other courtside amid fans; the teams will open a multi-year series next season in Phoenix.
Under the current terms of the arrangement, the second game of the series will be a home contest for Arkansas during the 2027-28 season, to be held at Bud Walton Arena. The following year, in 2028-29, Arkansas will travel to Tucson for a game at Arizona’s McKale Center. The two schools have also included an option for a fourth meeting in 2029-30, with the location and final details of that potential game to be decided at a later date. The format — a neutral-site opener followed by a home-and-home — is designed to give both programs marquee nonconference matchups while balancing the home-court opportunities across multiple seasons.
The scheduling pact follows a dramatic and high-scoring meeting between the Wildcats and Razorbacks in the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Arizona routed Arkansas 109-88 in the Sweet 16, a victory that propelled the Wildcats to their first Final Four in 25 years. Both head coaches showed receptivity to renewing the matchup following that regional semifinal, with the postseason meeting serving as the impetus for the multi-year series. The postseason encounter is part of why the two programs were able to come together on a nonconference agreement that will return them to the regular-season calendar for the first time in decades.
An Arizona player contests a shot during game action — Arizona and Arkansas agreed to a multi-year series that will include a neutral-site game in Phoenix and home-and-home meetings in 2027 and 2028.
Arizona’s performance in that Sweet 16 game produced several notable statistical landmarks. The Wildcats shot 63.7% from the floor, a rate described as the second-highest success rate in a regional semifinal dating back to 2000. In that game Arizona also achieved the unprecedented combination of making at least 60% of its field-goal attempts, 60% of its 3-point attempts and converting 30 free throws — a set of numbers that had not been recorded together before in an NCAA Tournament game. Additionally, six different Arizona players reached double figures with at least 14 points apiece, a distribution of scoring that was also unprecedented in the history of the tournament.
A number of players who featured prominently in that March meeting are expected to leave for the NBA as part of the 2026 draft class. From Arkansas, Darius Acuff Jr. and Meleek Thomas are listed among those expected to turn professional. Arizona figures to lose Brayden Burries, Koa Peat and Jaden Bradley to the draft as well. Despite that turnover, both programs project to return core contributors and to supplement their rosters through recruiting and the transfer portal. Arizona is set to bring back starters including Mo Krivas and Ivan Kharchenkov, along with a mix of high-end high school prospects and portal additions. Arkansas will return Billy Richmond III and has added high-end transfer Jeremiah Wilkinson from Georgia, while also preparing to integrate a strong recruiting class led by Jordan Smith, the No. 2 player in the 2026 cycle.
The series adds another significant matchup to what is shaping up as a stacked nonconference calendar in upcoming seasons. Both Arizona and Arkansas were ranked among the offseason top 10 in Gary Parrish’s Top 25 And 1 list, underscoring the national attention each program carries into the new cycle. Historically, the Wildcats and Razorbacks have met nine times with Arkansas holding a 6-3 edge in the series. The neutral-site game next December will mark the first regular-season meeting between the two teams since Nov. 17, 1995, when Arizona defeated Arkansas 83-73 at Bud Walton Arena in the preseason NIT.
The Arizona-Arkansas scheduling arrangement is part of a broader trend of programs arranging early-season rematches of high-profile NCAA Tournament matchups. Other notable examples in the upcoming slate include Connecticut scheduling three opponents it faced in March — headlined by a title-game rematch with Michigan early in the season — and a planned Turkey Day rematch in Las Vegas between Duke and UConn following their deep March meeting. Connecticut is also set to face Illinois on Dec. 9, another carryover from the tournament rematches being booked for nonconference play. Those matchups reflect a growing appetite among programs and event operators to recreate marquee postseason pairings on the regular-season stage.
For now, the confirmed elements of the Arizona-Arkansas series are the December neutral-site opener at the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix as part of the Naismith Hall of Fame Series doubleheader, the 2027-28 game at Bud Walton Arena and the 2028-29 visit to the McKale Center in Tucson, with an optional fourth game for 2029-30 to be finalized later. Financial terms tied to the neutral-site game are expected to deliver several hundred thousand dollars to each program for foregoing a campus site. With the verbal agreement in place, the two programs will bring a postseason rivalry back to the regular-season schedule and add another high-profile game to the nonconference landscape over the next several seasons.