United States of College Basketball: Ranking the best team in each state for the 2026-27 season

It's an annual rite of late October. When you see a map of the United States filled in with 50 college logos, you know the games are just about to begin.Welcome back to geography class, where we've once again redefined the fiefdoms across men's college basketball. This preseason feature started as a one-off in 2015 and has published every October since. Although there are some states that never change on account having just one D-I program (Hawaii, Maine, Vermont, Wyoming), every year the map is unique. There's never been the same 50 logos in this project.In 2026, we've got nine changes from last year — including one of the best rivalries in the sport seeing a logo flip for the first time in the history of this feature. I couldn't believe it, but I went back and fact-checked it and it's true. Which state am I referring to? You'll have to scroll down to find out. Every state is represented except for Alaska. The Last Frontier still does not have a Division I basketball program. The majority of logos you see on this map will also be included in the 2027 men's NCAA Tournament. And as always, the teams picked for the plat correspond with how they land in my preseason Top 100 And 1 team rankings. The midterms are coming up, but these votes have already been cast and all ballots are accounted for. There is blue or red; college basketball is a diverse spectrum of colors from across the palette. Matt Norlander's Top 100 And 1 college basketball teams: CBS Sports' preseason rankings for 2026-27 Matt Norlander With the season tipping Sunday in Rome, we'll keep the forecast domestic. Here is the projected best team in every state for 2026-27. State: Alabama Alabama Crimson Tide The Tide look to be top-five-good in the SEC again. The Tide are coming off a fourth straight 25-plus-win season, a streak that had heretofore never been done at that program. With Amari Allen and Aden Holloway in the backcourt, the Tide will have one of the best 1-2 guard duos in the country — and Auburn won't be far behind. Though I'm not as high on Auburn this season, Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton will be an entertaining backcourt duo for a Tigers team that's trying to find some consistency in Steven Pearl's second season. State: Arizona Arizona Wildcats Coming off a school-record 36-win season, it's still not close been U of A and the other schools in the Sand Hill State. Tommy Lloyd's Wildcats safely project as a top-two team in the Big 12 thanks to a strong influx of portal pickups and five-star freshmen. Arizona State starts a new era with Randy Bennett, and things look rosy there for now, but I've got Grand Canyon safely ahead of ASU in 2026-27. Bryce Drew's program spent more than any other mid-major in tihe past six months to ensure it was the easy favorite in the Mountain West. State: Arkansas Arkansas Razorbacks Though they've yet to see their team get back to a Final Four this century, Hogs fans are basking in the return to prominence that they waited decades for. John Calipari has the youngest team in college basketball but also one of the most talented. Jordan Smith Jr. (No. 2 recruit in America) is going to be must-watch, just like Darius Acuff Jr. was last season. I sat down with Calipari at SEC Media Days earlier this month. We had a 33-minute conversation that went all over the place. Highly recommend you watch, if you haven't seen this interview already. 🫎 State: California UCLA Bruins The Golden State has seen USC and San Diego State own this territory in recent years, but for a second straight season Mick Cronin's program has the claim to the state with more Division I basketball programs than any other. UCLA stocked up with a blend of returning talent, proven players via the portal and even a key international forward, Nikola Kusturica, who is just 17 years old and will spend the next two seasons in Los Angeles before he's expected to declare for the NBA in 2028. UCLA is just a notch above USC in my projection, though the teams are effectively at the same spending capacity in 2026 (USC just had more incentives tied to contracts that UCLA, which is why they got bumped a level above). More around Cali: San Diego State will probalby be an NCAA Tournament team again. Cal and Stanford aren't projected to be in the top 12 of the ACC. UC Irvine should be the best in the Big West. State: Colorado Colorado State Rams The Highest State has seen its logo flip-flop many times in the past 10 years. The Rams just narrowly beat out Colorado in my 2026-27 projections. The program's won 72 games the last three seasons. CSU returns five of its top seven scorers from a year ago as well. It's now in the Pac-12 (which has 10 teams) and seems likely to finish top-four in that league's rebirth. As for Colorado, Tad Boyle's program is one of the lowest-funded outfits at the high-major level. He lost his best players to the portal and is again forced to do more with less. The Buffs aren't expected to win 20 games. State: Connecticut UConn Huskies No surprises here. UConn is a preseason top-six team in the AP poll for a fourth consecutive year. Dan Hurley's got zero competition for state bragging rights, which is how it should be. The question is: Can UConn make a fourth national title game in a five-year span? If it happens, the Huskies will join John Wooden's UCLA teams, Duke from the mid-'80s into the early '90s and Kentucky from 2011-15 as the only schools to get to the last night of the season at least four times in a five-year span. The second-best team in the state is Yale, which will vie with Harvard and Penn in a top-heavy Ivy League. State: Delaware Delaware Blue Hens The Blue Hens are still safely outpacing Delaware State, but Martin Inglesby has just 26 wins the past two seasons and might be in the crosshairs if UDel isn't able to finish above .500. It's not optimistic right now: Delaware is projected in the bottom three of CUSA. State: Florida Florida Gators Does another chompionship await for the Gators? Florida winning out again in the Sunshine State overshadows Miami's huge surge last season under Jai Lucas and Florida State's improvements with Luke Loucks. Those two aren't going to be in UF's orbit this year (though Miami is going to try to make the biggest statement in the first week of the season when it plays Florida on Monday night in Tampa), but I do think Lucas and Loucks are well-positioned to get Florida into a place that it's maybe never been with all three of these football-first universities ranking top-30 or so in hoops in the next couple of years. College basketball rankings: Top 100 And 1 players who will define the 2026-27 season Cameron Salerno State: Georgia Georgia Bulldogs If UGA can make the 76-school NCAA Tournament field, it will be three straight seasons with a Big Dance ticket. And you know what? Georgia has never gone to three consecutive NCAA tourneys. I think it happens this year due to an awesome returning trio of Blue Cain, Smurf Millender and Kanon Catchings. Mike White has the fellas to stay steady in a super-strong SEC. Georgia is well ahead of Georgia Tech; the Yellow Jackets hired Scott Cross from Troy. GT is a hard job, but Cross could conceivably have the Bees back into the NCAAs by Year 3. State: Hawaii Hawaii Rainbow Warriors Fresh off the school's second NCAA Tournament appearance under Eran Ganot, the program based in Pacific Ocean paradise has made the move out of the Big West. Hawaii was in the league for 14 years, but is now part of the new-look Mountain West. The travel is rough, but they get the benefit of teams having to fly out to them as well. State: Idaho Boise State Broncos Leon Rice's program will easily rank in the top 100 again, as it's done for all but two years in his 16-season run. If BSU can get into the NCAAs in 2027 after missing the last two seasons, it will try to throw the monkey off its back: Boise State has more losses (10) than any school without at least one March Madness win in its history. State: Illinois Illinois Fighting Illini Though schools like DePaul, UIC, Illinois State and LUC are all on the upswing this season, Illinois belongs to the Fighting Illini. Keaton Wagler went from off-the-radar high school prospect to top-10 pick in a year's time, thanks to spurring last season's Final Four group. Brad Underwood brings back four international-born players (Andrej Stojakovic, David Mirkovic, Tomislav Zvonimir Ivisic) who were responsible for 50.1% of Illinois' scoring in 2025-26. The preseason Big Ten favorites who are in the midst of the program's most sustained run of success, maybe ever. State: Indiana Purdue Boilermakers Is the Hoosier State in doubt? I think that's fair to hypothesize. Matt Painter has undergone two or three out-and-out rebuilds in his 21 seasons in West Lafayette. This year counts as one. Given Painter's track record, he gets the benefit of the doubt — but not by much — ahead of Darian DeVries' second campaign in Bloomington. The Hoosiers cleared into the top 15 of the biggest spenders of 2026 and are poised to make a return to the NCAA Tournament after missing the last three times. Butler and Notre Dame are in uncertain situations, putting them well behind Purdue and IU. State: Iowa Iowa State Cyclones For the first time in a good while, the Hawkeye State has some good competition and bragging rights battles between its two high-major programs. The Cyclones have made five consecutive March Madnesses with an average seed of 4.8 and a 7-5 record in those five tournament runs. Iowa has returned to relevance with a quickness thanks to the homecoming hire of Ben McCollum. The Hawkeyes' Elite Eight run in March was the school's best tournament showing in four decades. Iowa lost its best player, Bennett Stirtz, while Iowa State is now expecting to have its point guard, Tamin Lipsey, in uniform for a fifth season (due to litigation efforts). The two teams will tip off for their annual rivalry game on Dec. 10. State: Kansas Kansas Jayhawks For the first time in a half-decade, Wichita State has jumped ahead of Kansas State in the three-school race in Dorothy's Home. The Shockers are ranked inside my top 60 and could best Memphis, Tulsa and South Florida as the champs of the American. K-State has a low budget in Casey Alexander's first season after a really good run at Belmont. But for the, I don't know, 87th year in a row, Kansas has the best program. Freshman Tyran Stokes might be a top-five player in America. Trey Kaufman-Renn's case to get a sixth season is polarizing, but if he gets it and if Tre White and Melvin Council Jr. can also play a fifth year, Kansas will have its sights on a Final Four run. College basketball's NIL arms race, from $5M to $25M+: Breaking down roster values, spending tiers for 2026-27 Matt Norlander State: Kentucky Louisville Cardinals Folks, this is a first. I went back and checked every USA of CBB map since the first one we did in 2015, and guess what? Louisville has never had its logo on our map in any year since. But this year, it does. While it's certainly up for debate, the metrics and human polls largely agree entering the season that Pat Kelsey's Cardinals are positioned to outplay Mark Pope's Wildcats in 2026-27. Both rank at the top in roster spending. Both have highly ranked portal classes. Both need to make the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, lest they face some real scorn from those fan bases. Louisville edging out Kentucky doesn't guarantee the Cards finish better, nor does it mean the 'Ville will be favored when it plays at UK on Dec. 12. But at least these two have found a way to get this rivalry really competitive again. State: Louisiana LSU Tigers The one noncontroversial thing I can write about Will Wade's program: It is without peer in its own state. LSU's roster-building was a carnival of the absurd for the better part of four months, but no matter who is wearing purple, the Tigers are clear of the Creole State competition. Wade's former school, McNeese, should again dominate the Southland on its way to a fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance. State: Maine Maine Black Bears Chris Markwood had a really good start to his first three seasons in Orono, averaging 16 wins per. Then last season was an 8-24 implosion and 348 finish at KenPom. Most of the roster shipped out, so theoretically this should be a return to double-digit wins. State: Maryland Maryland Terrapins Buzz Williams had the second-worst season of his career in his debut tour at Maryland, finishing 12-21 with a measly four wins against league competition. The roster was hampered by some injuries and definitely looks better this season. If Maryland can't get to the NCAA Tournament in 2027, though, he will without a doubt be on the hot seat a year from now. Bigger tournament leaves a lot less room for patience across the sport. State: Massachusetts Boston College I'm intrigued to see if Luke Murray is the guy who will get Boston College back into relevance. With the exception of maybe four or five wins in the past 20 years, the program hasn't mattered at all. Its standing in the sport was ruined by leaving the Big East for the ACC. Murray is smart and a good recruiter to boot. Can the vibe shift take effect in Year 1? State: Michigan Michigan State Spartans If Dusty May was still the coach, the reigning champs would still have that maize-colored M carpeting the state. Instead, an understandable slip in the national rankings, while Michigan State and preseason NPOY Jeremy Fears Jr. takes over The Mitten going into November. Tom Izzo is 70 years old and this year's Final Four is in Detroit. With arguably the best point guard in the sport, do we have a storybook swan song in the making? Michigan will give good chase, or at least should. Final Four MOP Elliot Cadeau came back, as did Trey McKenney, who will be one of the most improved sophomores. Roddy Gayle's eligibility for a fifth season is what U-M needs to keep its floor in the top 20. 2026-27 CBS Sports Preseason Player of the Year: Michigan State PG Jeremy Fears earns top honors Matt Norlander State: Minnesota Minnesota Golden Gophers When Niko Medved was hired in 2025, I said on Eye on College Basketball that he'd get Minnesota back to the NCAA Tournament by Year 3. And that was before we knew for sure the tournament would be 76 teams. After a 15-18 opening round, I'd say Minnesota gets 18 wins instead of 18 losses this season — then is in position to be a top-10 finisher in the Big Ten in 2027-28. State: Mississippi Ole Miss Rebels The Rebels had just their sixth 20-plus loss season in 2025-26. Seems unlikely Chris Beard's team is anywhere near that level of lightweight this season. One key is getting better shooting: Ole Miss' average 2-point distance on its shots last year was 8.0 feet, which was fourth-longest in D-I. The Rebels may not be a top-eight team in the SEC, but they're a notch about Mississippi State, which I fear may finish last in the best league in college hoops. State: Missouri Saint Louis Billikens This is, I believe, the third time I've slapped a Billiken mug inside Missouri's borders since this feature debuted in 2015. I'd say there's a 50/50 chance I'm wrong. I put Josh Schertz's SLU squad 24th in my rankings and Dennis Gates' Tigers at No. 29. Minimal air between the two. Best of all: Gates initiated the game against Saint Louis, in St. Louis, on Nov. 6. The programs haven't played since 2001. No excuse for that dormancy. That's a must-see matchup. State: Montana Montana State Bobcats If you average out the preseason rankings at KenPom, Torvik and EvanMiya, Montana State is 128th overall in the pecking order and Montana is 181st. The Bobcats haven't had this much of an edge on their Treasure State rivals in a good while. MSU is coached by Matt Logie, who is an even 50-50 through three seasons of Division I. State: Nebraska Nebraska Cornhuskers Nebraska vs. Creighton is actually the most underrated rivalry in college basketball. A lot of corn and a lot of crap between these two fan bases. Every year when we post this story and graphic, Husker and Jays backers get into my mentions and quote tweets about the logo that's draped over the Beef State. (Yes, one of the many nicknames!) Fred Hoiberg's Cornhuskers are coming off the best season in school history after winning March Madness games for the first time ever. With Pryce Sandfort and Braden Frager back, it's valid to put NU over Creighton, though I have already been on record saying I think Alan Huss gets the Bluejays into the NCAAs in his first season in Omaha. State: Nevada Nevada Wolf Pack A close race again between Nevada and UNLV, which both decided to stick in the Mountain West and resist Pac-12 flirtations. I've got Nevada at No. 74 and Vegas at No. 96. Steve Alford is retiring after this season. He had a few guys stay loyal and stick around, most notably Elijah Price. A year from now, this should be Josh Pastner's UNLV Runnin' Rebels who are back on top in the Casino State. State: New Hampshire Dartmouth Big Green Dartmouth hired one of the youngest coaches in the game when it brought on Stanford assistant Brett MacConnell, who has lengthy experience coaching in the Ivy as an assistant at Princeton. Even in Year 1, Dartmouth projects as a better team than its only in-state competition, UNH. State: New Jersey Rutgers Scarlet Knights The Seton Hall-Rutgers race is close more years than not and I suspect the same will play out over the next five months. Picking RU narrowly and wishing Steve Pikiell a speedy recovery and a full-time return to the sideline as quickly as possible. State: New Mexico New Mexico Lobos The Lobos are ranked tucked inside my top 50 thanks to Jake Hall's shooting prowess and star potential as one of the best sophomores in college hoops. UNM has plenty of range between itself and New Mexico State, which will be a solid CUSA team but doesn't appear to be top-100 good in Jason Hooten's fourth season. State: New York St. John's Red Storm This United States of College Basketball project has been an annual preseason feature of CBSSports.com's coverage since 2015. And until just three years ago, St. John's wasn't able to get its logo on the Empire State due to an elongated downturn. Rick Pitino has shifted the paradigm in ways I don't even think he thought was possible. SJU outpaces the rest of the state comfortably; Syracuse doesn't even project as an NCAA Tournament team in 2027. State: North Carolina Duke Blue Devils Jon Scheyer has soared past the expectation bar since taking over for Mike Krzyzewski in 2022. The only thing left to do is get to Monday night in April. Duke is again a preseason top-five team, while North Carolina starts anew with Michael Malone taking over and, presumably, being a notch or two below their Tobacco Road rivals in 2026-27. I've got NC State slightly ahead of Wake Forest in the Tar Heel State hierarchy, followed by UNC Wilmington. 2027 NCAA Tournament Bracketology: Duke No. 1 in preseason projections, expansion puts squeeze on mid-majors David Cobb State: North Dakota North Dakota State Bison As predicted a year ago, NDSU went on to win the Summit League and got back to the NCAAs for the first time since 2019. Dave Richman again has the top team in his state, with the Bison easily outrunning North Dakota. State: Ohio Ohio State Buckeyes Has any state seen its logo switch more frequently in the past decade? Xavier, Cincinnati and Dayton have all earned their colors on the basketball map above, but the Buckeyes are taking back the Buckeye State in hoops with John Mobley Jr., Amare Bynum and Anthony Thompson poised to have Jake Diebler's program in and around the Top 25 frequently this season. A year from now, this state could again flip to any of its big four again — and remember, Miami University went 32-2 last season. State: Oklahoma Oklahoma Sooners The gap is definitely closing between the Sooners and the Cowboys in orange and black. Steve Lutz was given a big influx in spending capacity and should have a team that rises in the Big 12 standings. I like Oklahoma to be just a little better this year, led by Xzayvier Brown, one of the steadiest combo guards you'll find. Oregon Oregon Ducks The Webfoot State might not be the Ducks' territory by March. Dana Altman's mid-October retirement puts Oregon into a quandary, and that's after U of O didn't have a roster that was a surefire NCAA Tournament team. Oregon State, meanwhile, hired Justin Joyner from Michigan and could be a medium-weight fighter in the Pac-12. The state of Oregon might not produce an NCAA Tournament team in 2027, but it could have a close race for who's best all the same. State: Pennsylvania Villanova Wildcats I'd rank Pennsylvania-based schools this season thusly: Villanova, Pitt, Temple, Penn, Duquesne. Villanova is easily No. 1, sitting in my preseason top 25, while Pitt is second and will probably be in the vast bubble mix in late February if the portal evals pay off. Kevin Willard took over last season and won 24 games and got VU right back into the NCAAs where it belongs. Now it's going to be about winning games in the Big Dance; Nova got booted by Utah State in the 8/9 game. State: Rhode Island Providence Friars Bryan Hodgson is here to restore Providence to prominence in the Big East. The Friars return just one player (Ryan Mela; 9.0 ppg) but landed a really strong class, even with a few eligibility cases not swinging their way. Miles Byrd is a two-way stud who came over from San Diego State and might be the leader of this team. At Rhode Island, Archie Miller faces a pressure-cooker season, though the Rams have gone 255, 206, 157 to 135 in Miller's four seasons. A top-100 finish may be required. Lewis Uvwo commits to Providence: Five-star center picks to Friars over Kentucky, Baylor Cameron Salerno State: South Carolina Clemson Tigers Brad Brownell's won 24 or more games three years in a row; that's the longest streak in program history. This year's team definitely looks like the strongest in the Palmetto State. The Gamecocks of South Carolina cocked many a head earlier this month when their basketball spending was revealed in the $15 million-plus category. Lamont Paris believes he's got a team that will get back to the NCAA Tournament. Look for Bob Richey's Furman Paladins to be a SoCon favorite as well. State: South Dakota South Dakota State Jackrabbits Bryan Peterson went 14-18 in his first tour with the Jackrabbits last season. South Dakota State falls into the top half of all mid-majors for the season ahead, but it's not expected to be a Summit League contender. It's still comfortably ahead of the Coyotes over in Vermillion. State: Tennessee Tennessee Volunteers Tennessee has the best team, but Vanderbilt has the best player. Tyler Tanner has a lot of new pieces around him with the Commodores; I still think Vandy winds up being one of the 30 best teams in college hoops. Tennessee's widespread changeover on the roster was one of the bigger plot points of the first month of the offseason. Led by pricy Wake Forest transfer Juke Harris, the Vols should have a top-10 offense and a stylistic makeover from the last three defensively rugged teams that brought Rick Barnes' program to the Elite Eight in 2024, 2025 and 2026. Elsewhere in Tennessee, Penny Hardaway enters his ninth season at Memphis squarely on the hot seat. 2026-27 CBS Sports Preseason All-America Teams: Thomas Haugh, Jeremy Fears Jr., Tyran Stokes among top stars Gary Parrish State: Texas Texas Longhorns For the first time in more than half a decade, Texas takes Texas. Sean Miller's second season came with a huge uptick in spending capability, and with that, one of the best portal classes of 2026. The Longhorns barely beat out Houston in my rankings. The Cougars still have top-10 potential, and one of the winningest cultures in college basketball. I took the Longhorns because I like the upside ever so slightly more. Houston proving to be the better team wouldn't surprise anyone, though. Elsewhere: Texas Tech will compete in the top quarter of the Big 12 so long as its five-for-five cases remain eligible via court orders. In Waco, look for Baylor to surge back into the Top 25 conversation this season after a sub-par past couple of seasons. State: Utah BYU Cougars The gap is still fairly wide in the Holy War. BYU is going to probably have a top-35 team (at minimum), while the Utes down the road are still adrift in a new era under Alex Jensen. If Utah can manage to finish in the top 12 of the 16-team Big 12, that would be a win; anything worse than eighth for BYU would be a huge letdown. Up the road in Logan, Utah State has new coach Ben Jacobson taking over with one of the best mid-major players out there, Mason Falslev. The Aggies have a good shot to go dancing again. State: Vermont Vermont Catamounts Vermont failed to win the America East the past two seasons but is the favorite to take the league in 2027. John Becker has one of the best winning percentage in college basketball. His 351-144 record equates to a 71% win rate. State: Virginia Virginia Cavaliers The Wahoos are easily out in front of the competition in the commonwealth. Ryan Odom has a ton of experience back on a team that could be second-best in the ACC to Duke. Virginia Tech is in a hot-seat season under Mike Young, which slots the Hokies third in the state to VCU, the preseason favorite in the Atlantic 10. State: Washington Gonzaga Bulldogs Sad but true: In 2026 the gap between Gonzaga and the University of Washington in men's basketball has probably never been wider. Gonzaga has three times the budget capacity as UW and isn't remotely threatened by the Huskies as an in-state former rival. Mark Few is somewhere on the 15th, 16th or 17th hole of his career and looking for one more Final Four run before he opts to retire. Washington, D.C. George Washington Revolutionaries Not a misprint. I've got GW just a notch ahead of Georgetown this season. Chris Caputo's program is positioned to be top-four or -five in the Atlantic 10 after acquiring a really strong portal haul for that level. I think George Washington snags one of the final at-large bids. Ed Cooley's team could overachieve, but to this point things have not clicked there. Given how long G'town's been down, the program can't be given the benefit of the doubt. State: West Virginia West Virginia Mountaineers West Virginia easily clears Marshall again, as it should be. Though the Mountaineers don't project as a top-30 team heading into November, Ross Hodge has a little bit of everything on his roster in terms of size, skill, experience, shooting, defense. Expectations should be to get into the 76-team tournament this season. State: Wisconsin Marquette Golden Eagles One of the closest ballots of 2026! Wisconsin and Marquette provide one of the best annual debates in any of the 50 states. The Badgers easily won it last year, but I'm leaning MU for this season (ever so slightly) on the notion that Nigel James Jr. will be one of the better guards in the country and get the Golden Eagles back into the NCAAs. Mark me down for a No. 8 seed for Marquette and No. 9 for Wisconsin. State: Wyoming Wyoming Cowboys Sundance Wicks is ready to start his third season in Laramie with the arrow pointing up. The Cowboys won 12 games in his first tour, then got up to 18 wins last season. Wyoming projects as a middle-of-the-pack team in the new-look, 10-school Mountain West. Want more college hoops preview material? We're loaded up: Check out our preseason All-America teams and take a look at our rankings of the best coaches ahead of the 2026-27 season.