College basketball’s regular season may be on the verge of getting a little longer, and the coaching ranks are making that pretty clear.
In CBS Sports’ latest “Candid Coaches” survey, Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander asked roughly 100 coaches a simple question: How long should the college hoops regular season be? The answers ranged from fewer than 30 games to more than 40, but the split at the top was the most telling.
Nearly half of the coaches polled, 49 percent, said they prefer a season of 32 games or fewer. The other 51 percent want the number pushed to 33 games or more.
That matters because the 2026-27 season will be the first in 20 years that teams are allowed to schedule 32 regular-season games instead of 31.
Among the coaches who landed in the 30-32 range, the message was basically that the current setup works. One coach argued that more games would have a “negative impact on the product and student-athletes”, while another said he’d be open to expansion only if the calendar itself were lengthened.
The coaches pushing for 33 or more games were looking at it from a different angle. Several pointed to the financial upside: more games mean more chances to generate money, and more money can mean better players.
One coach even floated Halloween as the official opening night of the season. Others noted the simple math of college basketball life - teams practice far more often than they play - and said the gap between those two things should be smaller.
One coach went all the way to a 50-game schedule. “Why not more?”
Kentucky coach Mark Pope has already staked out his own position on the issue. Since taking the job before the 2024-25 season, he has pushed for a 40-game regular season. Pope has argued for more non-conference games and tied the idea to increased revenue, better team chemistry over the course of a season, and studies suggesting student-athletes do better academically 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 way off, if it happens at all. But this poll shows the coaching community is at least warming to the idea of going beyond 32. How far that conversation goes from here is the real question.
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Heupel recently addressed the way Tennessee handled leadership during Carters NCAA suspension, noting that Carter served as the teams sole captain while sidelined. The suspension came after an agent paid for a flight during the pre-draft process, and Carter now returns with another layer of motivation, planning to donate money to cancer-related charities based on his defensive performance this season. For Tennessee, it is a reminder that this opening stretch is about more than just travel and opponent prep, with Carters return adding a personal and competitive subplot to a meaningful September test. [Read more 🡒]