College Basketball Weekly: A 31-Conference Whiparound

The calendar year of 2025 is here, which means the full arrival of conference play in college hoops. Saturday featured the first slate of action to kick off what’s sure to be a chaotic couple of months leading into March.

Into today’s installment of College Basketball Weekly, we’ll take a peek into the state of affairs for all 31 conferences — so long, Pac 12:( — highlighting a team or storyline to monitor in these leagues throughout the season. The Patriot League may now sound interesting on the surface, but come read about a sleeping giant’s great revival.

Each conference, even the smallest least significant among them, provide unique storylines and character, almost the tinier the better. So take a look at the notable results of the week and weekend before checking in on all 31 college hoops conferences.

Notable Results

(16) Cincinnati 67 @ Kansas State 70
West Virginia 62 @ (7) Kansas 61
North Carolina 70 @ Louisville 83
(22) Illinois 109 @ (9) Oregon 77
(6) Florida 100 @ (10) Kentucky 106
(23) Arkansas 52 @ (1) Tennessee 76
(25) Baylor 55 @ (3) Iowa State 74
(15) UCLA 58 @ Nebraska 66
Arizona 72 @ (16) Cincinnati 67
(12) Oklahoma 79 @ (5) Alabama 107
Texas 60 @ (13) Texas A&M 80

Conference Whiparound

The whiparound provides at least a few words on every single conference in men’s college hoops, ordered by KenPom’s efficiency rankings. The numbers in parentheses are his, not mine, as is the order. It’s not the be-all end-all, but KP does shed light on quite literally which leagues’ teams have performed the best the strongest through the non-conference.

Power Conferences

1. SEC (+20.6): Auburn keeps smashing through the checkpoints of a future national title winner. Their resume is plump with great wins already, Johni Broome is the National Player of the Year favorite, and the Tigers are No. 1 in KenPom with top offensive numbers across the board. But 2025 features the deepest, strongest edition of the league potentially ever. Is 14-0 Tennessee just as mighty of a contender? Florida and Kentucky can light it up, Alabama is rolling coming off their Final Four, and the middle of the league is laughably good. It would only be fitting for this monstrous conference to produce the eventual national champion.

2. Big Ten (+17.7): The SEC is rightfully hailed as the best, and the Big 12 has earned the presumption of No. 2. However, the Big Ten is deep with solid squads but without a clear national contender while 11 Big Ten teams populate the KenPom top-50. Purdue has to be considered a favorite on the heels of two straight titles but the Michigan schools, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, heck, Nebraska and Wisconsin — all could conceivingly take the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten tourney.

3. Big 12 (+17.1): The Big 12 peaked at its former size in 2023 with a tight but awesomely balanced league, and has since been uprooted and expanded in an interesting way. Houston wasted no time stealing Kansas’ throne as the top dog, but Iowa State was the best performer by far in the non-conference. It may lack the top-through-bottom depth of days gone by, but there are a hoard of elite teams.

4. Big East (+14.1): Connecticut stampeded through the conference last season as part of an even more dominant national championship run. While the decorated Huskies deserve the role of favorite, they’re vulnerable. Marquette has a wicked collection of guards and a Player of the Year contender in Kam Jones; Saint John’s figures to contend, and let’s mention Georgetown. The Hoyas are 12-2 and 3-0 in league play. A Big East title feels audacious but Ed Cooley is just looking to guide GT to their first at-large bid in a decade.

5. ACC (+9.8): You’d have never guessed 10 years ago, but Duke will likely lay low against a really poor ACC slate in the coming months. Pittsburgh and Clemson are veteran and on their way towards NCAA Tournament appearances. Louisville is rebounding after a brutal non-conference schedule. But North Carolina keeps losing, SMU collected a good record but just got shellacked by Duke at home, and there’s a large pool of hopeless teams at the bottom. The conference just isn’t in a great shape, and that’s a shame.

First Class Mid-Majors

6. Mountain West (+7.1): Utah State is off to a 14-1 start and 4-0 mark in conference play, looking for their fifth appearance in the last six NCAA Tournaments under a fourth different head coach. Craig Smith left for Utah in 2021, then Ryan Odom departed for VCU in ’23 and Danny Sprinkle absconded to Washington last spring after one season with the Aggies. No matter, Jerrod Calhoun has this group in position again, but a revamped San Diego State squad also has a strong resume through the non-conference and scored a road win over Boise State Saturday.

7. WCC (+5.3): Gonzaga is always the top story here, but early struggles and an altered roster of WCC teams has this league in a less certain spot than normal. Of course, the Zags and another solid Saint Mary’s team will be favored to win the crown but the addition of Oregon State and Washington State provides more juice alongside stalwarts like San Francisco and Santa Clara to form a formidable upper half of the conference at least for this year.

8. A10 (+4.5): We spotlighted Dayton a few weeks ago, and after a scorching start they regressed big time in a blowout loss at George Washington this weekend. However, the Flyers have real resume victories and an inside track for an NCAA Tournament appearance. But Saint Bonaventure looks like the juggernaut of the league at 14-1 with a lone defeat away from home vs. that terrific Utah State club. Ryan Odom’s VCU is battle-tested and figures to contend again as well, and KenPom has six A10 teams in his top 100.

Respectable

9. C-USA (+1.5): Kaden Metheny and Liberty soared to 13-2 at the midway point thanks to stout defense and superb high-volume shooting from deep as Ritchie McKay looks to take the Flames to their third NCAA Tournament in his 10 seasons at the helm. Meanwhile, UTEP stumbled with some tough losses out of the gate but rebounded to win nine of their last 10 with the loss by three points at Louisville.

10. AAC (+1.4): Despite some outright bizarre off-court storylines over the years, Penny Hardway heads towards his seventh straight 20-win season with promise for a third tourney appearance in four years. PJ Haggerty and a filthy-skilled backcourt lead the way on the obvious favorite for a very down AAC.

11. Missouri Valley (+0.6): Drake finally fell after a 12-0 start to conference foe UIC, but the Bulldogs and their cast of imports from Northwest Missouri State still look like the toast of the league. However, the Bradley Braves can strip Drake of that title if they can move to 14-2 and 5-0 in MVC play by beating the Bulldogs at home on Wednesday.

12. Big West (-1.94): Seven league titles in the last 11 seasons means UC Irvine is the king of the conference among the Big West’s 10 California clubs plus Hawaii, but the Anteaters are 13-2 and actually seeking their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2019. The Big West sneakily finished with a positive overall record in the non-conference, too.

13. Ivy (-2.4): Princeton and Yale dominate the conference of brainiacs, with the Tigers owning three straight regular-season crowns while the Bulldogs shared in one of those and grabbed the NCAA Tournament bid in 2022 and 2024 — Princeton got there in ’23. Columbia is off to a stellar start but that duo are penciled in as threats as well.

14. WAC (-2.5): Grand Canyon is fully realized as a mid-major hoops power after sweeping the WAC titles in 2023 behind a 30-5 record after also appearing in the NCAA tourney in 2023 and pulling off the sweep in 2021 as well. The Antelopes already have the best mark in the league at the turn of the year, too.

15. Southern (-2.8): The good ol’ SoConn leads the 31 conferences in 3-point attempt rate, as teams from this league attempt 3-pointers nearly 17% more often than those in the MEAC. Bucky McMillan is largely to thank for that trend. His Samford squad launches long balls by the dozen and makes north of 40%, a recipe for a second straight conference title and NCAA Tournament appearance.

Below Average

16. CAA (-4.3): Chris Mack is back. The former leader at a Louisville and Xavier leader took over Charleston for Pat Kelsey, who stepped into the Louisville vacancy this summer, oddly enough. Cardinal drama aside, Mack picked up where Kelsey left off and the Cougars are 12-3 eying a third straight NCAA Tournament.

17. Big South (-4.4): Alan Huss stormed into the Big South to win the league in his first season at the helm for High Point last spring. The Panthers missed out on the Big Dance but are eager to collect a bid in 2025 with a loaded roster for their level of play. Kezza Giffa was the star last year and returned, as did three of the four double-figure scorers in ’24, and one-time-Big 12 imports Bobby Pettiford (Kansas) and D’maurian Williams (Texas Tech) make HP the power to beat as the reigning champs.

18. Sun Belt (-4.8): So far this decade, the Sun Belt sent four different teams to the four NCAA Tournaments and had five different regular season champions plus seven of its 11 total programs holding up some sort of championship hardware by season’s end — and none of those seven are among the top three in the league so far this year.

19. Horizon League (-5.0): Five different teams shared the regular season crown over the last four seasons, which also featured four separate conference tournament champs. With a crowded upper half of the league, new winners and more chaos is on the menu for 2025.

20. Summit League (-5.3): Max Abmas and Oral Roberts are the only break between conference championships by schools with “Dakota” in their name. The Saint Thomas Tommies (another great nickname!) look sharp but Oral Roberts is just 4-10 and the Dakota Foursome (North and South + North and South State) is certain to threaten.

21. Big Sky (-6.1): Montana, Montana State and Eastern Washington have a stranglehold on the trophy case in the expansive northwest, owning 12 of the last 13 regular season and conference tourney titles. However, EWU and Montana St. are out to dreadful 5-10 starts while the Grizzlies are a strong 9-6.

22. MAC (-6.2): Toledo won four straight regular-season titles but never made the NCAA Tournament after losing each of the ensuing MAC tournaments. Brutal for Tod Kowalczyk, who’s coached seven MAC title winners but zero tourney champs, and thus, zero NCAA Tournament squads. Is heartbreak in line again in 2025? Will another challenger knock off the Rockets? Or will Toledo finally claw their way to the program’s first NCAA tourney since 1980?

23. Southland (-6.6): Or… the land that Will Wade owns. His McNeese State club raced through league play 17-1 last season and blow the rest of the conference out of the water at more than 100 KenPom spots ahead of No. 2 right now. These Cowboys suffered more stumbles in non-con play but figure to saddle up for a ride straight back to the NCAA Tournament.

24. A-Sun (-7.2): If college basketball had a Comeback Player of the Year award, Lipscomb’s Jacob Ognacevic may be the pick. The dominant big man from Sheboygan was a monster in 2023, missed 2024 with a knee injury, but returned this season and is back to his old ways, leading the conference in points per game (18.8) as the Bisons just completed a dominant December.

25. America East (-8.0): UMass-Lowell sprinted out to the front of the pack with a 12-4 record that features a handful of losses to quality opponents. A terrific mascot, the River Hawks look to make their very first NCAA Tournament appearance behind two four-year veterans and a sparkplug freshman in Martin Somerville.

26. MAAC (-8.8): Marist, Quinnipiac and Merrimack are all out to 3-0 starts in league play, and all are looking for either their very first NCAA Tournament appearance or their first since the 1980s in Marist’s case.

27. Patriot League (-9.5): How about Holy Cross? The Crusaders haven’t won more than 10 games in a season in the 2020s and haven’t finished with a winning record in Patriot League play in more than a decade (despite going 5-13 in-conference and then winning the Patriot League tourney in 2016) but are already at nine wins with a 9-3 mark since suffering two losses in November.

16 Seed Incoming

28. Ohio Valley (-11.5): Now here’s a conference with tremendous balance. All 11 teams have between five and nine wins as of Sunday morning, and five are at eight with SIU-Edwardsville ahead by a nose at 9-6.

29. MEAC (-12.9): Norfolk State is the only MEAC team to win more non-conference games than they lost — and you shouldn’t give head coach Robert Jones a head start in this league, because he and the Spartans have won it four times since 2019 and are favorites to make it a fifth in 2024.

30. Northeast (-14.6) : Central Connecticut is just laughing at the competition. Patrick Sellers’ squad is the only to reach double digit wins thus far and the Blue Devils are looking to repeat as regular season conference champions but would love even more to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007.

31. SWAC (-14.9): Well, the 6-8 Southern Jaguars are the team to beat here heading out of the non-conference as they were able to win four in a row in between various losing streaks.