Way Too Early Big South Rankings
Way Too Early Big South Rankings
1. High Point
The defending regular season champs in High Point are looking to overcome an early exit in their conference tournament last season and propel themselves into the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school tournament, and they have the team to make a run at it. With one of the best transfer classes in all of Low Major D1 basketball adding Bobby Pettiford, Jeremy Fourmena, and Chase Johnston all key contributors at their last program, along with with an amazing returning group including two all Big South players from last season. Along with a solid recruiting class, right now High Point seems to be the class of the field in the Big South.
2. Longwood
The defending Big South tournament champions led by Coach Griff Aldrich is set up for at least a better seed entering the tournament this season. Last year the cinderella team beat Winthrop, High Point and UNC Asheville to make the NCAA Tournament. The kryptonite of last years team was the lack of amazing guard play and Coach Aldrich made MASSIVE changes on that front adding Kyrell Luc, KJ McClurg, Angelo Brizzi, and Colby Garland to the backcourt. The one concern entering this season is the front court where there are glaring holes with no real returning production and no transfer portal additions.
3. UNC Asheville
For UNC Asheville the Drew Pember show is over and now the team is looking for a new identity entering this season, and it might be led by a group of Power 5 and Mid Major transfers headlined by Justin Wright, Sage Tolentino, and Jordan Marsh. With returning players like Fletcher Abee, Greg Gantt and Toyaz Solomon, UNC Asheville might have the highest floor out of any program in the Big South but just lacks that superstar, or amazing upside that both Longwood and High Point have from their roster but if either of those teams falter than UNC Asheville can very well pounce and capture the conference and the tournament berth.
4. Winthrop
Winthrop is in the next tier of Big South teams not being in the elite teams but not in the depths of horror of the Big South with little to no shot at winning the conference. Keeping Kelton Telford was a massive keep for Winthrop and with the adding of Logan Duncomb and Bryce Baker they have a solid roster but have a glaring issue with depth and especially in the backcourt with only 4 guards and only two hard serious experience, if they can add one or two solid guards before the start of the season then this team could very easily climb the rankings.
5. Charleston Southern
Mainly propelled by a underrated recruiting class, Coach Nimley has also retained 4 key players from last season while also adding multiple impact transfers. The players who I think will decide if this team is a bottom team or a team in contention for a Top 5 finish are, Lamar Oden Jr, Keenan Wilkins, and Daylen Berry. If these three mixed with the 4 returning stars can play to their fullest CSU could very well be a top team, but if they play very average or falter then we might have a team competing with the bottom feeders of the conference.
6. Gardner-Webb
With one of the highest floors in the Big South people might ask Gardner-Webb is 6th out of 9 teams in my way too early Big South rankings, minus the absolute collection of talent by all schools involved from top to bottom, I believe we know pretty firmly what we will receive from Gardner-Webb many of their players are returning either as a transfer, or players choosing to stay with the program, currently 7 players have been with the team at one point in their career and only two of which took their talents elsewhere before coming back (Anthony Selden and Jamaine Mann). I believe Gardner-Webb could very well be a hard team to get out of the Big South tournament but for the regular season I think they will be middle of the road.
7. Radford
I do love what Radford bring to the table for the future of the program but for this season I believe their lack of experience will be evident, most of the "experienced" player they are bringing in via the Transfer Portal have very little player experience at their previous school, also the current lack of size is really scary for this season because of the size other schools have in the conference. To the upside I love the getting of Zion Walker, Chace Davis and Tony Felder and those three can bring this team to solid spot but if they don't address the size then this season could be a horror.
8. Presbyterian
To begin the group of schools that I have at the bottom we have Presbyterian. They are keeping a lot of their roster which would be good if they had a lot of impact players but unfortunately they didn't with a large freshman class maybe if they could keep those guys and let them develop they could be good in the future but in the current moment the roster leaves a lot to be desired but definitely not the worst in the conference.
9. USC Upstate
To end this group we have USC Upstate. In my opinion the hire of Coach Richter leaves a lot to be desired and the only way it would have been a good hire is if you could poach some of that Drake talent and while they got Chico Johnson that was it, the rest of the roster is freshman, a couple holdovers from last season and a couple of JUCO and NAIA players who haven't performed at that level let alone at a Division 1 program.
State of College Basketball
Time for the controversial part of the post, NIL.
I have the privilege of being able to talk from two stand points, The Agent and The Fan. I did NIL for a few football players in a Power 5 conference during the 2023-24 season, and I obviously am a fan of college basketball so I can speak from that point of view.
The Agent in me loves this as a business standpoint because it's an easy way to one work your way up the agency ladder and also an easy way to build relationships both with athletes who could be future clients when/if they become pro and with people in the industry. The Agent in me also likes it for the players being able to earn money from all the work they've put in from their younger years, through high school and now to college and hopefully pro careers.
With that being said, I've heard too many horror stories of NIL "agents" taking unreal percentages, and just lying to clients about numbers they are receiving for their clients. It's not just me seeing these horror stories, @low_madness on Twitter/X has covered these at the Mid Major ranks so if you want to see those check him out.
Something I used to not want, but after leaving the industry and seeing how bad some kids are getting scammed, I believe we need a national or NCAA agent registry where you either proven experience in contract negation, a passed BAR exam, and or a four year degree. I would also like to see a max percentage that can be taken like the NBA, NFL and other leagues have for contracts. I would love to see also a IOLTA account law that every agent must have to hold players money while deals are in escrow waiting to be finalized where if more than a certain amount is taken that agent gets reported to a federal, state or independent commission and be investigated on why it feel below that certain amount.
The Fan in me enjoys seeing kids making money and kids being able to make YouTube channels, TikToks, Merch, and special deals with companies, but I can't stand watching Mid Major program getting torn apart by High Major programs throw MASSIVE sums of money at players.
Watching teams like SJU, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas poach all these amazing mid majors talents hurts to see, especially when some of them won't see the court because they are deep behind 5 star recruits and players who had been their for years. Seeing teams like GCU and High Point keep talent is exciting but those schools also only focus on basketball and I don't want to see football go to the way side so teams can keep up in basketball or the other way around.
Do I want NIL to stop? Definitely no.
Do I want the pay to play era to end? YES.
Do I have a solution for this issue, unfortunately no.