On May 9, 2025, the NCAA Basketball Rules Committee proposed a few rule changes for the 2025–26 and 2026–27 seasons.[2] These changes were approved on June 10 by the NCAA Men's Basketball Rules Committee and the Playing Rules Oversight Panel.[3][4]
If one of the shot clocks becomes inoperable, the shot clock at the other basket will remain on.
Continuous motion rule: an offensive player who ends his dribble going toward the basket and absorbs contact from the defense will be permitted to pivot or complete the step the player is on and finish the field goal attempt.
Officials will have the option to call a flagrant 1 foul when a player is contacted to the groin.
Bench personnel who physically assist a player with the ball will be penalized if they intentionally interfere (i.e., assisting a player to stay inbounds when their momentum is taking them out of bounds, pushing a player in a direction the coach wants the player to go).
All fouls or violations below the free throw line extended in a team's frontcourt will result in throw-ins at the nearest-designated spot under the basket and all fouls or violations above the free throw line extended will result in throw-ins at the nearest-designated spot at the 28’ foot mark.
If a player uses the backboard or rim to gain an advantage, it will be a basket interference violation.
Musical instruments, amplified music, canned music or artificial noisemakers will be permitted during dead balls.
A one-game suspension will be required for an individual who failed to serve a suspension for physical abuse of an official or fighting, and a one-game suspension for the team's head coach will be required when the individual who should have served their suspension failed to do so.
On December 18, 2024, a United States District Court issued a preliminary injunction in favor of Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia after preliminarily finding that NCAA Division I by-laws 12.02.06[5] and 14.3.3[6] and the rules in the NCAA Division I 2024–25 Manual[7] constitute a commercial agreement, can be replaced by a less restrictive alternative and cause irreparable harm to Pavia. The injunction prevents the NCAA from enforcing its eligibility rules against Pavia and Vanderbilt University.[8] The injunction is not a final determination of the judicial system as to the NCAA's eligibility rules and specifically applies only to Pavia. Nevertheless, the NCAA Division I board of directors approved a temporary blanket waiver for student-athletes who competed at a non-NCAA school for one or more years and would have exhausted their NCAA eligibility following the 2024–25 academic year under existing rules. Such student-athletes are granted an additional year of eligibility for the 2025–26 academic year.[9]
May 6 – New Haven announced that it accepted an invitation to join the NEC effective July 1, 2025, and begin reclassification from NCAA Division II to be eligible for NCAA-sponsored postseason play in 2028–29.[10]
June 26 – The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) and WAC announced that their football alliance, the United Athletic Conference (UAC), would become an all-sports conference in 2026–27. According to the joint press release, the WAC will rebrand as the UAC, allowing the UAC to inherit the WAC's automatic bids to NCAA championship events, including basketball. The future alignment of the ASUN and WAC members is[14]
Going forward, the ASUN will retain its seven current members that do not play scholarship FCS football. Five of these schools do not sponsor football at all, Stetson plays non-scholarship FCS football in the Pioneer Football League, and Bellarmine plays the non-NCAA variant of sprint football.
July 21 – The American Athletic Conference announced it had dropped the word "Athletic" from its name, becoming the American Conference. The conference also retired the "AAC" initialism, which had been used more by media than by the conference itself; the official short form is now simply the word "American".[17]
September 24 – The Loyola Phoenix, the student newspaper of Loyola University Chicago, announced that 106-year-old Sister Jean, who began her tenure at Loyola in 1991, and had been chaplain of the men's basketball team since 1994,[20] retired for health reasons.[21]
October 2 – The Northeast Conference adopted its longstanding abbreviation of NEC as its official name.[22]
November 3 – Houston coach Kelvin Sampson earned his 800th career win following the Cougars' win in their season opener against Lehigh. The victory was also Sampson's 300th during his tenure at Houston.[27]
November 16 – Purdue coach Matt Painter earned his 500th career win following the Boilermakers' win over Akron.[28]
Michigan became the first team to achieve consecutive victories of 30 points or more against ranked opponents with November 25 and November 26 wins over Auburn (21) and Gonzaga (12).[29]
Arizona became the fastest team to achieve victories over 5 ranked opponents in a season, doing so in their 9th game of the season with victories over Florida (3), UCLA (15), Uconn (3), Auburn (20), and Alabama (12).[30]
A total of six schools joined new conferences for the 2025–26 season. Of these, five moved within Division I, and one began reclassification from NCAA Division II.
An upset is a victory by an underdog team. In the context of NCAA Division I men's basketball, this generally constitutes an unranked team defeating a team currently ranked in the top 25. This list will highlight those upsets of ranked teams by unranked teams as well as upsets of No. 1 teams. Rankings are from the AP poll.
Bold type indicates winning teams in "true road games"—i.e., those played on an opponent's home court (including secondary homes). Italics type indicates winning teams in an early season tournament (or event). Early season tournaments are tournaments played in the early season. Events are the tournaments with the same teams in it every year (even rivalry games).
Unranked Seton Hall's neutral site win over 23rd-ranked NC State broke a streak of 96 consecutive games won by ranked teams against unranked opponents to start the season, the longest such stretch in a season in AP Poll history.[35]
In addition to the above-listed upsets in which an unranked team defeated a ranked team, there have been five non-Division I teams that defeated a Division I team so far this season.
Bold type indicates winning teams in "true road games"—i.e., those played on an opponent's home court (including secondary homes). Italics type indicates winning teams in an early season tournament (or event). Early season tournaments are tournaments played in the early season. Events are the tournaments with the same teams in it every year (even rivalry games).
Each of the 31 Division I athletic conferences will end its regular season with a single-elimination tournament. The team with the best regular-season record in each conference receives the number one seed in each tournament, with tiebreakers used as needed in the case of ties for the top seeding. Unless otherwise noted, the winners of these tournaments will receive automatic invitations to the 2026 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.
† 2026 NEC tournament winner * ineligible for the 2026 NCAA tournament due to transition from Division II ** ineligible for both the 2026 NEC tournament and the 2026 NCAA tournament due to transition from Division II As of December 16, 2025
The NCAA tournament will tip off on March 17, 2026, with the First Four in Dayton, Ohio, and will conclude on April 6 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. A total of 68 teams will enter the tournament. 31 of the teams will earn automatic bids by winning their respective conferences tournaments. The remaining 37 teams will be granted "at-large" bids, which were extended by the NCAA Selection Committee.
Final Four - Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana
Once the NCAA tournament field is announced, the National Invitation Tournament will invite 32 teams to participate. The first three rounds will be played at campus sites, with the semifinals and final taking place at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Once the NCAA tournament field is announced, the College Basketball Crown tournament will invite 8 teams to participate in the event, the Big Ten, Big XII and Big East conferences will receive 2 bids each, the other 2 will be given at-large. The Crown will be held at various venues on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada the week before and during the Final Four.
Bruce Pearl announced on September 22, 2025, that he was stepping down from his head coaching role after 11 seasons at Auburn and will remain with the university as an ambassador to the athletic department and serve as special assistant to the athletic director. The elder Pearl led the Tigers to 246 wins, the most as head coach of the program, and made two Final Fours.[41] His son and associate head coach Steven was named as his replacement the same day.[42]
Barnes announced he was stepping away from CSUB on September 24, 2025, after 14 seasons. He led the Roadrunners to a 210–231 record during his tenure, including an appearance in the 2016 NCAA tournament. Assistant coach Scott was named interim head coach for the 2025–26 season.[43]
Lange resigned from St. Joe's on September 10, 2025, after six seasons to take a front-office position with the New York Knicks. Hawks associate head coach Donahue, who had been hired during the off-season, was elevated to head coach the same day.[44]
Wofford fired Perry, along with associate head coach Tysor Anderson, on September 12, 2025 following an alleged NCAA violation. Under Perry, the Terriers went 48–43 in his 3-year tenure, capped off with an appearance in the NCAA tournament this past season.[45] Virginia Tech assistant coach Giltner, a former assistant and alum of Wofford, was hired on September 22.[46]
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