Tournament expansion has been shelved for another year, thankfully. The college basketball offseason is becoming one of those things in life that both flies by and drags on simultaneously. That time is over, and another season is about to kick off. With player, coach, and team movement done, excitement is building for what is about to take place between the lines.
In the rearview mirror is all four No. 1 seeds reaching the Final Four and the comeback kids from Florida beating Florida for the national title. Cooper Flagg and four of his former Duke teammates are now on the NBA stage. Duke has reloaded with Cameron and Cayden Boozer, sons of former Blue Devils’ great Carlos Boozer. AJ Dybantsa, the No. 1 recruit in the country, takes the floor for BYU, while Darryn Peterson and Mikel Brown lead resurging Kansas and Louisville, respectively. Fifteen Power-5 coaches switched jobs, and after a relatively quiet realignment season, we welcome New Haven to the Division I ranks and Grand Canyon to the Mountain West.
Another season about to get underway means it’s time for some bracketology because before we know it, Selection Sunday will be here. It doesn’t matter if the game is BYU vs. Villanova on November 3rd or the Big Ten title game minutes before the bracket is revealed; they all have relevance from a bracketology standpoint. So before the games begin and we settle in for five months of nightly excitement, here’s a preseason bracket to whet your appetite.
Midwest Region (Chicago)
St. Louis
1.) Houston vs. 16.) Austin Peay
8.) Maryland vs. 9.) Oklahoma
Oklahoma City
5.) Texas Tech vs. 12.) High Point
4.) Arkansas vs. 13.) McNeese State
Greenville
6.) Ohio State vs. 11.) VCU
3.) Kentucky vs. 14.) Furman
St. Louis
7.) Missouri vs. 10.) Memphis
2.) Iowa State vs. 15.) Little Rock
The top overall seed in the first field of the season resides in the Midwest Region. The Houston Cougars follow up a national title game appearance (their first since 1984) by grabbing the No. 1 overall seed to begin the 2025-26 season. While Kelvin Sampson lost four key contributors to graduation and Terrance Arceneaux to the transfer portal, he unconventionally reloaded the roster. Houston welcomes in the No. 3 recruiting class in the country, according to 247sports. Kingston Flemings is a 6’3 point guard, Isiah Harwell is a lengthy shooting guard at 6’6, and forward Chris Cenac, Jr. was the top power forward prospect in the country. All three are top-20 recruits, and all three should see significant time, with the potential to crack the starting lineup.
A team to watch in this region is the No. 5 seed, Texas Tech. The Red Raiders are another team that lost a lot in the offseason but supplemented their returning players, which include National Player of the Year candidate JT Toppin and breakout candidate sophomore Christian Anderson, by hitting the portal. Donovan Atwell is a sharpshooter who comes over from UNC Greensboro, where he was second on the team in scoring and shot 40% from behind the arc. Lejuan Watts is a 6’6 forward who led Washington State in rebounding with 6.7 per game and added 13.7 points per game.
The rest of the region is highlighted by the SEC, with three teams in the top half of the region. The Kentucky Wildcats are the No. 3 seed in Mark Pope’s second season. John Calipari’s second season at Arkansas begins as the No. 4 seed with new faces, center Malique Ewin from Florida State, and guards Darius Acuff, Jr., and Meleek Thomas, highlighting a top-five recruiting class.
The No. 7 seed is the Missouri Tigers, who find themselves in an intriguing first-round matchup with Memphis. Missouri is a veteran club with both Mark Mitchell and point guard Anthony Richardson II returning. Dennis Gates also has four key transfers coming in, including guards Sebastian Mack (UCLA) and Jayden Stone, who redshirted with Missouri last season after transferring from Detroit, helping out Richardson II in the backcourt. Joining Mitchell in the frontcourt will be Shawn Phillips, Jr. (Arizona State) and Jevon Porter from Loyola Marymount, where he averaged 12.5 points and 7.2 rebounds last year.