Kansas fans get hyped up before tipoff against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

The Kansas men’s basketball team’s exhibition slate is now complete thanks to the addition of perhaps the most prominent matchup it could possibly have scheduled in advance of the season.

The Jayhawks will host Duke for a preseason game at Allen Fieldhouse on Sunday, Oct. 25, KU announced on Wednesday. It is part of what is being referred to as the Blue Blood Classic. The tipoff time has yet to be revealed.

The matchup is part of KU’s homecoming weekend, and comes the day after a home football game against Baylor at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. Tickets for the KU-Duke exhibition will be sold separately from KU’s season-ticket package.

KU and Duke will also play a return date in October 2027 at Cameron Indoor Stadium, a place KU coach Bill Self has never been and described in 2024 as a potential “bucket-list” destination.

The three exhibitions for the Jayhawks this season — the total allowed under new rules — include Pittsburg State on Oct. 16 for the revamped Late Night in the Phog, Louisville on Oct. 21 in the second stage of a home-and-home series and now Duke on Oct. 25.

“I think if you get a chance to play Duke at home in a unique way that’s set up, and then (have) us actually go back to their place next year, I personally think it’s great,” Self said later on Wednesday. “I think from a fan standpoint, getting Louisville and Duke at home, I think definitely adds to the attraction of our schedule immediately. Those two games aren’t the biggest games on our schedule by any means, but the appearance of having them that early in the season, I think people will be pretty amped up to watch them.”

This game, of course, will not count, but Duke leads the all-time series against KU 9-7 after a 78-66 victory in the Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden last November. The two schools have faced off in three of the last four seasons.

The Blue Devils made their only previous trip to Lawrence on Feb. 20, 1988, for what was ultimately a 74-70 overtime victory for Duke, in the game that served as the debut of KU’s famous “Beware of the Phog” banner. The 2027 exhibition matchup will also serve as KU’s first visit to Cameron Indoor Stadium since 1989.

The Jayhawks open the season in earnest eight days after their exhibition against Duke, when they host Fordham on Nov. 2.