Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college basketball, where the Bruce Pearl nepo baby succession plan has Auburn trending from Final Four toward the NIT.
The Minutes gets an abbreviated run due to Winter Olympics coverage, but we’re here for the next few weeks to ramp up for Selection Sunday. No time to waste, let’s get to it …
What Happened to the Big East Takeover?
Do you remember the great revenue-sharing panic of 2024 and ’25? When people in college sports made a typically panicked assumption that the House v. NCAA settlement was going to suddenly skew things in favor of the basketball-centric Big East Conference (1)?
You hate to see a classic college sports panic amount to nothing.
The premise was this: The football schools would spend the vast majority of their $20.5 million revenue share on football players, with a secondary outlay on men’s basketball players; meanwhile, the Big East schools would devote the vast majority of their share to hoops. And—sound the alarms, something must be done!—it would be unfairrrrrrr to the basketball programs at football-first schools.
Alabama coach Nate Oats, to The Athletic in the summer of 2024: “That’s a problem. As long as it’s equitable across all the high-major schools, you’re fine. But if one’s got $22 million and one’s got $5 million, that’s a problem. We’re not going to be able to compete.”
Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork, to Boardroom in October: “Let’s say that their revenue-share number is double or triple what we have in the Big Ten because we’re feeding football as well, what does that look like from a competitive standpoint? If some of the numbers we’re hearing are accurate, it puts them at a distinct advantage.”
Duke athletic director Nina King, to Yahoo Sports last March: “In the Big East, their basketball revenue-share portion will be a lot more than what those of us can do who have Division I power football programs.”
Well, here we are in the latter stages of the first year of the Rev Share Era, and the Big East might be the worst it’s ever been. Unless there is a shocking winner in Madison Square Garden next week, this is a three-bid NCAA tournament league, which would tie for the fewest in the Big East’s 46-year history. Flagship program Connecticut (2) is the lone national title contender, with St. John’s (3) a moderately disappointing second and Villanova (4) a distant third. Nobody else is even on the bubble, unless you’re feeling overly charitable toward Seton Hall.
So what exactly happened to the great panic?
First and foremost, it was overblown by the Cassandras who are always terrified of being at a competitive disadvantage. Second, it overlooked the fact that a school has to have the money to spend, and without football revenue not many places have $20.5 million laying around even for their top priority. Third, the panic was based on the flawed premise that $20.5 million was an actual hard cap—that’s been easily doubled by some of the football factories, which means that allotting 15% of a bigger pie to men’s hoops is still plenty of money to remain competitive with the basketball schools. Fourth, the major-conference power players were never going to roll over in terms of competitive NIL. And fifth, some Big East schools have wasted their investment this season, while others haven’t ramped up their revenue sharing to a competitive level.
St. John’s rainmaker booster Mike Repole hasn’t gotten his considerable money’s worth yet from the current roster. Providence was fairly aggressive in the player market and has a 14–15 record to show for it. Creighton brought in five transfers and is having its worst season in more than a decade. Of the Big East spenders, only UConn and Villanova have gotten commensurate bang for their bucks.
Others in the league are still coming to grips with the new era. It’s not an easy philosophical adjustment at smaller private schools that have operated traditionally (i.e., frugally) for decades. Marquette, in particular, laboring through a 10–18 disaster of a season, has acknowledged a need to modernize after years of Shaka Smart succeeding with an old-school approach.
Maybe, in the coming years, the Big East will leverage a theoretical rev-share advantage into a return to dominance. But here in 2026, no such advantage exists.
Ball knowers know—this is the good stuff. The two weeks before Selection Sunday are as much fun as the real thing, with more than 300 teams still alive and hoping to go as far as they can. As always, The Minutes is here for a sprint through the conference tournaments—half of them this week, and the other half next week.
KenPom conference rating: 26th out of 31.
Inspiration: 2019 Murray State and Belmont. Both made the Big Dance and won games, the Bruins in the First Four and the Racers in the main draw. (Unfortunately, both schools are in the Missouri Valley now. Among current OVC members, please see 2011 Morehead State, which upset Louisville in the first round.)
Best player: Tennessee State wing Aaron Nkrumah averages 17.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and an OVC-leading 2.9 steals per game.
Best March coach: Southeast Missouri coach Brad Korn is 6–3 in the OVC tourney, including winning it in 2023 and making the final game last year.
Top seed: Tennessee State (21–9 overall, 15–5 in the league), coached by former Duke national champion Nolan Smith.
Dark horse: Third-seed SEMO, which has won 10 of its last 12.
Minutes pick: SEMO (6). The top seed hasn’t won this tournament since 2022.
KenPom conference rating: 22nd out of 31.
Inspiration: Winthrop 2007, which upset Notre Dame in the first round as a No. 11 seed.
Best player: Winthrop big man Logan Duncomb averages 18.4 points and 9.0 rebounds while shooting a league-best 59.2% from the field. But a foot injury last week may sideline him for the tourney, which would be a game changer.
Best March coach: UNC Asheville’s Mike Morrell is the only coach in the league who has won this tournament, in 2023. He’s 7–6 overall in the Big South tourney.
Top seed: High Point (27–4, 15–1), which has won the regular-season title three years in a row and is on an 11-game winning streak.
Dark horse: It’s cheating to call the No. 2 seed a dark horse, but this looks like a two-team tourney. So Winthrop (21–10, 13–3) it is. The Eagles have lost two games by a total of four points in 2026, but Duncomb’s status is unclear.
Minutes pick: High Point (8). The Panthers changed coaches since last year, but the winning remains the same.
KenPom conference rating: Ninth out of 31.
Inspiration: Indiana State 1979, which was 33–0 behind Larry Bird before losing to Michigan State in the national championship game.
Best player: Bradley guard Jaquan Johnson is second in the Valley in scoring (17.4 ppg) while also producing 3.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and league-best 2.6 steals.
Best March coach: Second-year Southern Illinois coach Scott Nagy has won five single-bid tournaments, three at South Dakota State and two at Wright State. He’s 24–12 in league tournament play.
Top seed: Belmont (26–5, 16–4), with two of those league losses in overtime.
Dark horse: Third-seed Illinois State (20–11, 12–8), which was inconsistent but closed with a flourish, beating Northern Iowa on the road and handing Belmont just its second loss in the last 15 games.
Minutes pick: Illinois State (10), which kept a talented nucleus of players from being poached in the transfer portal to set up this season.
KenPom conference rating: 24th out of 31.
Inspiration: Florida Gulf Coast 2013, when Dunk City soared into the Sweet 16 as a No. 15 seed.
Best player: Central Arkansas guard Camren Hunter is averaging 19.7 points and comes in on a heater, scoring 104 points in his last four games. He’s 31 of 32 at the foul line in that stretch.
