Overreact to college basketball exhibition results at your own peril

There are hard truths we all have to face at some point when we’re growing up: Not everyone is going to like you, your parents aren’t perfect, Rainbow Road can be fun but it’s clearly the most overrated track on Mario Kart, etc.

The same can be said for growing up as a sports fan. At some point in our lives everyone learned the all important lesson that preseason games don’t matter.

For me, it was 1991. The Detroit Lions had just lost a preseason game to I don’t even remember who, and a young Barry Sanders-obsessed Mike on the verge of tears had to be reassured by his father that what he just watched “didn’t count.”

Didn’t count?

They wore their normal jerseys. There were fans in the stands. They had referees. They kept score.

What kind of upside-down bizarro world had I found myself transported to?

Despite the initial “your first dog just went to live on a special farm” vibe, eventually the lesson sunk in for me, like it did for all of us. Accepting the knowledge that we should more or less ignore the final scores from preseason games in the NFL, NBA, NHL and every other league that has a preseason is now universally recognized as an important milestone in the development of every sports fan.

Now, for deeply imbedded members of the college basketball world, it feels like the lesson is being taught all over again.

For the unaware, 2025-26 was the first season where Division-I college basketball teams were permitted to play exhibition games against one another without needing a waiver from the NCAA. Before last fall, there were a handful of high-profile exhibition games between D-I squads, but those games had to be played for charitable purposes and needed NCAA permission.

So for the first time ever, we exist in an era where we’re getting what feels like a “proper” college basketball preseason where legitimate national title contenders are squaring off against one another instead of beating up on teams from the D-II, D-III and NAIA levels.

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What it also means is that we’re getting people who are — for a second straight season — absolutely losing it over the results of some of these practice games.

So far in October we’ve seen Xavier hammer preseason No. 8 Tennessee, Seattle U knock off Oregon, reigning national champ Michigan get pushed to the brink by Oregon State, Santa Clara take down Stanford, and Baylor “shock” preseason No. 1 Florida.

Thankfully, everyone has taken these results in stride and no one has overreacted.

(This is where I let you know that the previous statement was sarcasm and that there HAS, in fact, been some freaking out and overreacting to the previously laid out preseason results).

Re-learning things past a certain age is an absolute chore, but college basketball fans are going to have polish up on their knowledge of what preseason games do and do not mean if they’re going to make it to the first week of November without losing their minds.

The good thing about this being year two of the new college basketball preseason world is that we now have hard evidence to point to and say “this is why you shouldn’t be freaking out.”

Twelve months ago, this was happening:

—Cincinnati beat Michigan … The Bearcats would go on to lose 15 games and not sniff the NCAA Tournament while the Wolverines eventually won the national championship.

—Ole Miss beat Houston … The Cougars would go on to be a 2-seed and the Rebels would lose 20 games and finish next-to-last in the SEC.

—Creighton beat Iowa State … Not only did Creighton finish with a losing record and Iowa State go on to be a 2-seed, but the two teams played an actual game in the first month of the actual season. Iowa State won by 18.

—Kentucky beat Purdue and lose to Georgetown … The Wildcats wound up being much worse than the Boilermakers and much, much better than the Hoyas.

—Unranked Nebraska beat No. 8 BYU … Ok, so this one actually wound up being a little prophetic, but the overall point still stands.

It is crucial to hammer this information into our brains at this moment, because look at the slate of exhibition games that we’re about to get hit with.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20TH:

-Tennessee @ Duke – 7pm – ACCN
-Connecticut @ Michigan State – 7pm – BTN Plus

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21ST:
-Louisville @ Kansas – 7pm – ESPNU
-Oregon @ Utah – 8:30pm – ESPN Plus

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22ND:
-Virginia @ Villanova – 7pm
-Auburn vs Alabama (Birmingham, AL) – 8pm

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23RD:
-Texas Tech @ Kentucky – 7pm – SECN Plus
-Missouri @ Kansas State – 8pm – ESPN Plus
-Baylor @ Illinois – 8pm – BTN Plus
-Memphis @ Mississippi State – 8pm
-USC @ San Diego State – 10pm

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24TH:
-Georgia Tech @ Providence – 12pm
-LSU @ Florida State – 1pm – ACCNX
-Gonzaga @ Arkansas – 4pm – SECN Plus
-BYU @ UNLV – 4pm – MWC Plus

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25TH:
-Duke @ Kansas – 1pm – ESPN
-Michigan State @ Marquette – 1pm
-Houston @ Michigan – 1pm
-Iowa State @ Northwestern – 1pm – BTN Plus
-Butler @ Ohio State – 2pm – BTN Plus
-Washington State @ Washington – 4pm – BTN Plus

And that’s not even 1/10th of the total games that are going to be played between now and opening night on Nov. 2.

There is a 98 percent chance that at least a couple of these games are going to give us some final scores that are begging for an overreaction. Every instinct in our sports-ruined brains is going to tell us to make a sweeping generalization about which teams are “legitimate” Final Four contenders and which teams aren’t. We must, I repeat must, resist.

Remember the early 1990s Buffalo Bills (essentially the Bible for learning that preseason games don’t matter. Those teams lost like 15 or something (it’s been a while since I read the Bible) consecutive preseason games and still went to the Super Bowl in four consecutive years.

The hot takes can start flying once we flip the calendar, and there will be plenty of time for more after that. For now, everyone needs to keep them holstered.