It has never been more challenging to make specific projections about how college basketball teams will perform over a five-month period than right now. The season is less than a week away and there are more than 100 players across high- and mid-major basketball who are suing to get a fifth year of eligibility. Some of these players rank among the 30, 40 or 50 best in the sport.
Their eligibility will likely sway the success, or lack thereof, with a litany of programs. Best of all: Because the NCAA is resisting allowing a blanket waiver for all fifth-year cases for 2026 graduates (when everyone else who graduates in 2027 and beyond is qualified) nobody knows who will be allowed to play and for how long. It's possible some of these fifth-year cases will get yanked more than a month into the season and cause significant recalibrations for those teams.
More than 40% of the teams listed in this story are grappling with player-initiated lawsuits. Aside from the 2020-21 season during the COVID-19 outbreak that led to hundreds of postponements and game cancellations over the course of five months, there has never been a season with more uncertainty and consternation attached to it than the one that's about to begin. (This better be a one-off.) Given the gush of lawsuit-inspired headlines from the past three months, I think it's safe to declare that we're all desperate for the games to tip. All of the courtroom crises didn't stop me from an annual rite of self-doubt and overthinking.
It's time for CBS Sports' mega-ranking of the 101 best teams to know heading into the season. Before we get to Sunday's debut — Notre Dame vs. Villanova in Rome! — hop in and take an elongated tour of the many echelons of teams that tier out college basketball's landscape for 2026-27.
Remember that we're trudging forward in a diluted new era. It's a 76-team national tournament now. The regular-season stakes have lowered, giving more schools an opportunity to backdoor into March Madness.
With that in mind, here's how I would index the rankings. Invariably, some sitting outside the top 65 will surprise for the better and plenty inside the top 50 will disappoint. But with all of the transfer movement, the hundreds of millions of dollars involved in building these rosters and the untold number of injuries that will mar many a team's season, the prediction game isn't for the faint of heart.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
