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NCAA Basketball: 75 best non-conference games for 2019-20 season

By Donovan Darlington

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 31: Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans is defended by Tre Jones #3 of the Duke Blue Devils during the first half in the East Regional game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Capital One Arena on March 31, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 31: Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans is defended by Tre Jones #3 of the Duke Blue Devils during the first half in the East Regional game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Capital One Arena on March 31, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /
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JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA – MARCH 23: Ashton Hagans #2 of the Kentucky Wildcats shoots a free throw against the Wofford Terriers during the second half of the game in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Vystar Memorial Arena on March 23, 2019 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA – MARCH 23: Ashton Hagans #2 of the Kentucky Wildcats shoots a free throw against the Wofford Terriers during the second half of the game in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Vystar Memorial Arena on March 23, 2019 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /

NCAA Basketball is finally back! The non-conference portion of the season begins in a little over a week and there are plenty of great games right from the start.

As passionate fans of NCAA Basketball, we realize that there is much more to college basketball than the month of March. Although March is when the sport is most exciting, the non-conference games of November and December can definitely have an NCAA Tournament feel.

Those squads with their sights set on a National Championship get the chance to take an early shot at one another while the overlooked mid-majors have the opportunity to collect national attention early in the year.

This time of year is even more important for those high-majors that typically find themselves sitting on the bubble and hoping for the mercy of the selection committee when Selection Sunday rolls around. They too, get the perfect opportunity in November and December to pick up very convincing victories.

Due to the fact that there are so many exciting non-conference games featuring teams of all different levels, I decided that trying to rank the best 75 non-conference games would be rather difficult and even a little bit pointless. When ranking the best non-conference games, writers often only include the games with big-name high-majors and leave out games with talented mid-majors. This is a mistake because it leaves out some high-quality basketball and may even cripple the brackets of many people in March.

So, rather than ranking the 75 best, I have divided the best 75 non-conference games into 6 different categories and ranked the games within that category.

  1. Matchups Between Strong Mid-Majors
  2. Strong Mid-Majors vs. Solid High-Majors
  3. Matchups Between Solid High-Majors
  4. Strong Mid-Majors vs. Potential Title Contenders
  5. Solid High-Majors vs. Potential Title Contenders
  6. Matchups Between Potential Title Contenders

Along with ranking them, I give a prediction of the squad I think will be victorious. Remember, this is a statement season, so these games may be harder to pick than you might think.

Now, there are a lot of great games to discuss before tip-off next week, so let’s get to it!

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