Purdue Basketball Announces Exhibition Game vs. Kentucky
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Purdue is headed to an iconic venue to play one of college basketball's bluebloods as part of the 2025-26 season. On Friday, the program announced that the Boilermakers will head to Lexington to play Kentucky in Rupp Arena for an exhibition game.
The date is set for Friday, Oct. 24. Ticket and television information will be released at a later date. A tipoff time has not yet been set.
For the past two seasons, Purdue has played high-profile programs in exhibition games to prepare for the regular season. Before the 2023-24 campaign, the Boilermakers traveled to Fayetteville to play Arkansas. Last year, coach Matt Painter took his team to Omaha for an exhibition matchup with Creighton.
🚨 SCHEDULE ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨
— Purdue Men's Basketball (@BoilerBall) May 2, 2025
Sure, it's only an exhibition, but it's a big one.
📆: Friday, Oct. 24, 2025
📍: Lexington, Kentucky / Rupp Arena
🎟️: Ticket info to be announced pic.twitter.com/gK7beGJ1AG
Both Purdue and Kentucky are expected to be highly-ranked to begin the 2025-26 campaign. ESPN has the Boilers ranked No. 1 in its way-too-early top-25 for next season. Kentucky is ranked No. 10.
Purdue and Kentucky are coming off similar seasons in 2024-25. Both squads finished with 24-12 records and reached the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats fell to Tennessee at Lucas Oil Stadium in the Midwest Regional and Purdue lost to Houston, also in the Midwest Regional.
This exhibition game will be the first time the two teams have played since 1997. Kentucky leads the all-time series vs. Purdue 6-2.
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Dustin Schutte is the publisher of Purdue Boilermakers on SI and has spent more than a decade working in sports journalism. His career began in 2013, when he covered Big Ten football. He remained in that role for eight years before working at On SI to cover the Boilermakers. Dustin graduated from Manchester University in Indiana in 2010, where he played for the men's tennis team.
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