College Basketball Preseason: Scandal and Stakes

Preseason coverage frames a high-stakes, unsettled college basketball season: Arizona begins Tommy Lloyd’s second year in the Big 12 with high expectations despite relying more on freshmen while returning leaders Jaden Bradley and Tobe Awaka and facing a brutal nonconference and conference slate. The ACC is confronting an identity tug-of-war as football-driven revenue growth masks diminishing basketball returns—conference distributions still trail the SEC and Big Ten and the league sent a historic low of four teams to the NCAA Tournament last March. A sprawling federal gambling and point-shaving investigation is casting a shadow over the sport, with schools warned some players are under scrutiny and concerns that secrecy around withheld players can create exploitable betting asymmetries; insiders who wager on nonpublic information may face criminal liability. At the mid-major level, programs such as Wisconsin–Milwaukee enter the season as Horizon favorites with notable nonconference tests (including a trip to Indiana), and Nebraska looks to rebound under Fred Hoiberg after a disappointing 2024–25. Individual program previews highlight roster turnover and personnel storylines—Notre Dame may rely on transfers like Carson Towt and Tennessee’s defense remains a work in progress—signaling a season shaped by scheduling, conference dynamics and off-court scrutiny.