There are eight remaining undefeated teams in DI men’s college basketball to start the 2025-26 season. Some of them are national championship contenders who have already faced tough competition, while others are just hoping this early season winning streak can lead to an NCAA tournament berth.
Seven of the eight teams who are still unbeaten come from power conferences. Five of them made the NCAA tournament last season, and none of them have new head coaches this year. These teams are all built in unique ways, with some of them owning a plethora of future NBA talent, while others have had to take on reclamation projects through the transfer portal.
Which of these teams will stay unbeaten the longest? It has as much do with the schedule as it does the quality of the roster. Let’s rank them by who is most likely to be the last undefeated team in DI men’s college basketball for the 2025-26 season.
Potential first loss: Dec. 10 vs. Wisconsin, Dec. 13 @ Illinois
Toughest game: Jan. 27 @ Michigan
Nebraska has just two NCAA tournament appearances since the turn of the millennium, and head coach Fred Hoiberg has one of those to his name. Hoiberg is putting the Cornhuskers in a good spot to earn another bid this year with a 9-0 start that includes wins over Creighton, Oklahoma, and Kansas State. Nebraska has a star in fifth-year senior center Rienk Mast, who was born in the Netherlands and spent three seasons at Bradley before transferring to Lincoln. Mast dropped 20 points in the win over Creighton, and looks like one of the better three-point shooting bigs in the country right now with a 45.2 percent mark from three (on 42 attempts). Iowa transfer Pryce Sandfort has also been a consistent performer with double-figures in scoring in seven of his first nine games. Hoiberg has his son Jack starting at point guard and a defense that has been forcing misses at the three-point line so far despite giving up a ton of attempts. It’s possible that Nebraska’s defense is going to sink once opponents start making their threes. Beating Wisconsin on Wednesday would go along way to legitimizing this start for an eventual at-large bid.
Potential first loss: Dec. 16 @ Wright State, Dec. 30 @ Bowling Green
Toughest game: Jan. 3 vs. Akron
Miami (OH) hasn’t made the men’s NCAA tournament since the 2006-2007 season. The last time the MAC received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament was 1999, meaning the RedHawks will need to win the conference tournament to get into the big dance regardless of what their regular season record looks like at the end of the year. Miami only faces one opponent all year currently ranked in the top-100 of KenPom, and that’s Akron at home on Jan. 3. There are some potential pitfalls before then — Wright State and Bowling Green on the road could get them — but the Akron game currently feels like the biggest test to see if the RedHawks really are worthy of dancing this season.
Miami is led by former Xavier head coach Travis Steele, and he’s done a great job building this roster in a low-major conference. The RedHawks have good size for a MAC team going 6’9, 6’8, 6’6 across the front line, and they have six different players who could emerge as their leading scorer on any given night. Junior Evan Ipsaro is the team’s leading scorer right now, and he’s putting up absurd scoring efficiency (74 percent true shooting, top-10 in America) for a 6-foot point guard. Brant Byers, a 6’8 redshirt sophomore, is also having a nice year as a stretch forward who can knock down shots and hit the glass. Former Rutgers transfer Antwone Woolfolk gives them a big body inside with defensive playmaking chops and the ability to control the glass against MAC teams. Steele is a legit coach, and this roster feels good enough to push Akron for the MAC’s bid.
6. Oklahoma State Cowboys
Potential first loss: Dec. 13 vs. Oklahoma, Jan. 3 @ Texas Tech
Toughest game: Feb. 7 @ Arizona
Oklahoma State hasn’t exactly been a basketball powerhouse lately: it only has one NCAA tournament appearance since Brad Underwood left for Illinois following the 2017 tournament, and that’s when it had future No. 1 overall NBA draft pick Cade Cunningham leading the way. Head coach Steve Lutz is building the program back up in his second season, and the Cowboys’ 9-0 start already includes a few good wins over Texas A&M, Northwestern, and South Florida. Life in the Big 12 is going to be much, much harder, and that starts with their next game against Oklahoma on Saturday. If the Cowboys can win the in-state matchup, they have a few cupcakes before playing a powerful Texas Tech team on Jan. 3.
Oklahoma State doesn’t take many threes, but they get to the line a lot and are efficient from two-point range. Vyctorius Miller, a 6’5 guard who is the son of rapper Silkk the Shocker and the nephew of Master P, is having a big year scoring the ball after transferring from LSU with outstanding 73.3 percent true shooting so far. Iranian big man Parsa Fallah, who transferred in from Oregon State after being at Southern Utah, is an offensively slanted big who is currently shooting 70 percent on two-point field goal attempts. 6’5 senior Anthony Roy and 6-foot guard Kanye Clary help pace the offense, too. I’m skeptical of the Cowboys’ defense, but they are building a nice resume right now with an opportunity for a signature win against the Sooners.
Potential first loss: Dec. 13 vs. Alabama, Jan. 26 @ BYU
Toughest game: Feb. 21 @ Houston
Arizona has tested itself against college basketball’s best early in the season, and keeps rising to the challenge. It beat Florida on a neutral court on opening night, beat UConn in a true road game, and knocked off Auburn at home. The Wildcats are in the top-10 of both offensive and defensive efficiency right now, and they have stars at every position. Jaden Bradley is growing into one of the better guards in the country as a skilled rim finisher with a dependable mid-range game. Super freshman Koa Peat is tracking as a top-10 draft pick in June with grown man’s strength that he leverages to take over on both ends of the floor. 7’2 center Motiejus Krivas is also having a career year with 71.6 percent true shooting and a nearly 7 percent block rate. The Wildcats don’t have a ton of depth, and they have another difficult matchup looming in Birmingham against Alabama, but they’ve already proven themselves in the early season and should only keep getting better until March.
Potential first loss: Dec. 11 vs. Iowa, Jan. 13 @ Kansas
Toughest game: March 2 @ Arizona
Iowa State’s 23-point shellacking of No. 1 Purdue in Mackey Arena takes the cake as the most impressive victory of the season so far. The Cyclones are the only team in the country that’s top-5 in both offensive and defensive efficiency right now, and it really feels like this team is built to last. Iowa State has a ton of continuity from last season with three holdover stars — guard Tamin Lipsey, big man Joshua Jefferson, and wing Milan Momcilovic — all playing at or near an All-American level right now. Jefferson is a brute force down low who is a special passer for his position while also starting to develop a three-point stroke this year. Momcilovic is a tall wing shooter who has made 53.6 percent of his first 69 attempts from three, while Lipsey can lock up at the point of attack and turn defense into offense. Freshman Jamarion Batemon has provided a nice spark off the bench, and Virginia transfer Blake Buchanan is doing a good job protecting the rim. Thursday’s home game against Bennett Stirtz and Iowa could be tricky, and then there’s a date at Phog Allen Fieldhouse with Kansas on Jan. 13 that won’t be easy. Iowa State has never reached a Final Four in men’s basketball. This is their best chance to do it.
Potential first loss: Dec. 20 vs. Texas Tech, Jan. 6 @ Louisville
Toughest game: Feb. 21 vs. Duke
Say this about Jon Scheyer: he has no problem landing the top recruits in the country every year. Cooper Flagg is tearing up the NBA after leading Duke to the Final Four last season, and now it’s Cameron Boozer’s turn to make his own run at National Player of the Year while trying to lead his team even further. Boozer has been unreal as a freshman forward who combines brains and brawn while also being tremendous skilled with the ball in his hands. Duke uses Boozer at the elbows and in the post, but will also let him run pick-and-roll as a handler or act as a short-roll playmaker. He’s not the bounciest big man, but he’s a proven winner at every level, and he hasn’t let Duke down yet. Boozer has an awesome front court partner in Patrick Ngongba who might be the best passing big man in the country. The team’s national championship hopes rest on how the other freshmen develop, with Cayden Boozer, Dame Sarr, and Nikolas Khamenia coming a little slow out of the gates. Dec. 20 vs. Texas Tech on a neutral floor and Jan. 26 at Louisville loom as potential pitfalls, and then there’s a date with Michigan on Feb. 21 in Washington, DC that might be the college basketball game of the year.
Potential first loss: Dec. 17 @ Memphis, Jan. 7 vs. Alabama
Toughest game: March 7 @ Tennessee
Is there a bigger surprise team in college basketball this season than Vanderbilt? The Commodores’ 9-0 start includes wins over St. Mary’s, SMU, and VCU, and they’re starting to get hyped as a team that can potentially make a deep run in the NCAA tournament. KenPom even has Vandy running the table right now as the projected winner in every game the rest of the way:
Head coach Mark Byington has designed the No. 2 offense in DI, and it does a great job spacing the floor and rarely turning the ball over. Sophomore guard Tyler Tanner is even starting to catch NBA interest despite being listed at 6-foot, 173 pounds because he’s a deadly off-ball weapon who can shoot the lights out (50 percent from three on 38 attempts) and get into the passing lanes (4.7 percent steal rate). Oklahoma transfer Duke Miles and former North Carolina recruit Tyler Nickel have added two more knockdown shooters on the perimeter. Vandy doesn’t have much size — the entire starting lineup is 6’7 and under, with UNC transfer Jalen Washington representing the lone true big off the bench. Upcoming games at Memphis and Wake Forest will be tough, but with the SEC looking down considerably from where it was last year, it’s not crazy to think the Commodores could challenge Alabama and Florida to win the conference.
Potential first loss: Jan. 30 @ Michigan State
Next toughest game: Feb. 21 vs. Duke
Michigan looked like a Final Four contender coming into the year after a massive offseason spending spree headlined by perhaps the best returning player in the sport in do-it-all forward Yaxel Lendeborg. Nine games later, Michigan not only looks like the clear-cut best team in America, but it’s possible this is shaping up to be one of the most dominant squads of the modern era. It might seem too early for that type of talk, but Michigan currently has an unfathomable +37 net-rating built off destroying one quality opponent after another. The Wolverines beat Gonzaga by 40 points on a neutral floor in late Nov. in the ultimate flex of their power; it’s the Zags’ only loss of the year, and they responded by beating preseason contender Kentucky by 35 points in their next game. Michigan has an overwhelming combination of size, motor, and discipline across the lineup, and it’s producing the country’s No. 1 defense by holding opponents to 38 percent shooting from two-point range on the year. That’s the top mark in the country and almost hard to believe given that they’ve played a real schedule so far. Michigan’s own two-point field goal percentage? That would be 65 percent, mostly through spacing the floor with shooters and athletes and still having monsters in the middle like Morez Johnson, Aday Mara, and Lendeborg, who has suddenly been freed to play off the ball.
Michigan won’t get many nights off in the Big Ten, and the games at Michigan State on Jan. 30 and at Purdue on Feb. 17 will be special even before they get to Duke on Feb. 21. For now, this is the most impressive team in the country, and even with a difficult schedule, they have the best chance of staying undefeated longer than anyone else.
