In the 2025-26 season, the Tigers faced off against four Power Four teams in its nonconference slate. Two of their opponents were the usual rivals in Illinois and Kansas, and the other teams faced were Minnesota and Notre Dame, who each finished with a losing record.
Missouri followed the weak out of conference slate with two straight SEC wins, but then dropped four of six before truly catching a rhythym. And with just two neutral site games in the schedule, once it came time for the neutral site contests in the SEC tournament and NCAA tournament, Missouri lost in both games.
This upcoming season, the Tigers have boosted its four high-profile nonconference games to seven and neutral site games from two to five. Missouri takes on St. Louis and Marquette in two of its first four games in November, each at neutral sites in St. Louis and Chicago.
"I wanted to kind of be in our backyard, but also where our alumni base is as well (in) Chicago, you look at St. Louis, you look at Kansas City," Gates said at Monday's media day. "That gives us opportunities to play in those environments."
The decision to not only bolster the schedule, but add neutral site games was an intentional choice from Gates. Instead of having two games against teams featured in the AP Top 25 like Missouri did last season, the Tigers have six games against teams that either made the list or received votes.
"Ultimately, when you look at administration, they wanted a more quote-unquote strength of schedule," Gates said. "When you look at the opportunities that I looked at, it had to be intentional. It had to be with some type of detail."
After two tough challenges in the first half of November, Missouri will take a four game break before resuming its high-profile nonconference slate. From Dec. 1 to Dec. 20, the Tigers play five straight tests that will be a strong gauge of where the team stands heading into conference competition.
The stretch will feature games against Pitt, No. 17 Kansas, Nebraska, Indiana and No. 3 Illinois. Nebraska received the second most votes of teams outside of the AP Top 25, behind Missouri, and Indiana received eight votes in the polling.
The Tigers boast a young roster filled with pivotal freshmen like Jason Crowe Jr. and Toni Bryant and predicted sophomore starters Bryson Tiller and Jamier Jones. With these challenging early games, Gates thinks it will be an important test for the younger players on the roster.
"Not only are we going against great players, we're going against great coaches. We're not as experienced as these teams that we're playing (in) nonconference," Gates said. "We'll bump our heads, we'll make mistakes, but how will we respond in those educational moments? It'll either be a coffin or a classroom, and it's up to us to figure out which direction we handle our adversities."
The first significant test of the season comes in just the second game of the year in a matchup against the Saint Louis Billikens. The Billikens, who made it to the second round of March Madness last season, will play Missouri at 6 p.m. on Nov. 6, 2026, at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
"A game against SLU, a game that only happened three times out of the last 47, 48 years, that's important for our state, that's important for our future students, that's important for our alumni," Gates said.
Missouri will start its regular season at 7 p.m. on Nov. 3 against Cleveland State at Mizzou Arena.
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