College basketball coaches are warming to the idea of stretching the regular season, and the latest CBS Sports “Candid Coaches” survey shows just how far that conversation has moved.
Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander asked roughly 100 coaches a simple question: How long should the college hoops regular season be? The answers ran the gamut, from fewer than 30 games to 40 or more. The 2026-27 season will be the first in 20 years where teams can schedule 32 regular season games instead of 31.
The split was close. Nearly half of the coaches, 49 percent, said they prefer a regular season of 32 games or fewer. The other side, 51 percent combined, wanted the season to grow to 33 games or more.
Among the coaches comfortable with the 30-32 game range, the message was basically that the current setup works. One coach argued that adding games would have a “negative impact on the product and student-athletes”, while another said he’d support more games only if the calendar itself were extended.
The coaches pushing for 33 or more games tended to land on the same argument: money. More games mean more chances to generate revenue, and more revenue creates room to pay better players.
One coach even floated the idea of making Halloween the official opening night of the season. Others pointed out that teams spend far more time practicing than playing, and they’d like to narrow that gap.
One coach went all the way to a 50-game schedule and asked, “Why not more?”
Kentucky coach Mark Pope has been one of the loudest voices for expansion since taking over ahead of the 2024-25 season. He has pushed for a 40-game regular season, with more non-conference games at the center of his case. Pope has said the extra inventory would bring in more money, help teams build chemistry, and line up better with studies showing student-athletes do better in the classroom during their sports seasons.
“I just think it’s time to expand our season out to a 40-game season,” Pope said in March 2025. “Like, it should be a 40-game season, especially with all the change and the turnover and the lack of continuity of teams, and also with revenue sharing and everything else, it doesn’t make any sense that we’re at a 31-game season. It makes no sense.
“And so I’m a massive advocate, maybe the only one in the world. But we need to expand the season to 40 games. Even for the guys that go on to be pros, it gives them a better sense.”
A 40-game regular season still looks like a long shot for now, but the survey makes one thing clear: plenty of coaches are ready to go past 32. How fast that momentum builds is the next question.
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