UAC Preview: 2026-27 College Basketball Predictions & Best Bets Recap
Ryan McIntyre (@Moneyline_Mac) and Troy Chewning (@Troychewning) bring in Michael Huffer (@michael_huffer3) for the UAC college basketball preview, breaking down the brand new nine-team league. Central Arkansas and Tarleton State are the favorites to win it, and Austin Peay is never far behind.
A Brand New League Built From Old Rivals
Ryan McIntyre calls this preview number nine of 32, with tip-off about three and a half weeks out. And this one is a blank slate. The UAC pulls pieces from the A-Sun and the WAC, plus Little Rock out of the OVC, so nobody has a league history to lean on. Texas brings Abilene Christian, Tarleton State and UT Arlington. Arkansas adds Little Rock and Central Arkansas, the defending A-Sun co-champs. Then it runs through Austin Peay and Eastern Kentucky before landing on North Alabama and West Georgia. That makes nine teams. Also, ignore the dot in Florida on the map, because no Florida school is in this league.
Michael Huffer already cut his own UAC preview on the Pump Fake pod. His first read on the map was simply “why?” But the regional logic shows up once you see it drawn out. Tarleton and Abilene already hate each other, and Austin Peay and EKU carry an old OVC grudge. Troy Chewning likes Central Arkansas and Austin Peay as the next big rivalry, since both should sit near the top. Mac points at Austin Peay and North Alabama, because the Gibson and Pujol games were already chippy in the A-Sun. Then there is the travel. EKU to Abilene or UTA is the longest trip in the league, and Mac calls it brutal.
New Coaches And Stock Up, Stock Down
Two first-year coaches drive most of the storylines. Travis Ford takes over Little Rock after Daryl Walker’s eight-year run. Ford has also been out of coaching for two years, and Mac stresses those were big years in the portal and NIL era. Eric Hott replaces Billy Gillespie at Tarleton after working with Calhoun at Utah State. Mac is fully in on Hott, crediting him as the guy behind that Utah State zone. Meanwhile Tony Pujol is the only coach North Alabama has ever had, so every program record runs through him. A.W. Hamilton has won a couple of regular season titles at EKU but has never reached the NCAA tournament. And Huff says Gibson’s Austin Peay teams play some of the best perimeter defense in college basketball.
Stock up, stock down is tricky without a league history, so the guys graded where each program is headed. Troy goes stock up on Little Rock, because Ford inherits a mash-up roster with only one returner. Even matching last year counts as a win there. Huff goes stock up on UTA, which went 9-9 in the WAC and brings back a better roster. Mac takes Tarleton, and he thinks Hott turns a .500 WAC team into a title contender. On the other side, Troy hates it but goes stock down on EKU. Huff calls North Alabama a fixed income bond, steady but stuck in the middle for now. Then Mac fades Abilene Christian, a young team that never finished above fourth under Brett Tanner.
The UAC College Basketball Preview Standings, One Through Nine
Two of the three ballots put Central Arkansas on top. Troy points to a 14-point scorer and two nine-point guys returning, plus Tucker Anderson. Huff agrees and hints that the league’s player of the year is already on that roster. Mac goes his own way with Tarleton, because Hott has the oldest team and the money to back it up. So Mac slots Central Arkansas second, noting they return 63% of a team that went 15-3 in league. Troy then makes his own rule and ties Tarleton and Austin Peay for second. Huff takes Austin Peay at two, and the stout defense is the whole argument.
Austin Peay lands third for Mac, while Huff puts UTA there for one of the best backcourts in the league. Little Rock goes fourth for both Troy and Huff. But Mac is the skeptic. He asks whether Ford is even a good coach and drops Little Rock to eighth. He sends UTA to fourth instead, since Turner always seems to finish in that four or five range. Troy has UTA fifth and admits his love of Ford could be an emotional flip. Huff has North Alabama fifth, with a shot at an upset in the conference tournament. Then Mac has EKU fifth on a high-variance press, while Troy and Mac both have North Alabama sixth.
Huff is lowest on Tarleton at sixth, though he still sees something close to a decent record. From there, Abilene Christian and EKU trade the seven and eight spots. Troy and Mac both have Abilene seventh, because that building still gets loud. Huff has EKU seventh and Abilene eighth, buying none of the preseason hype on that young roster. Troy puts EKU eighth and hates doing it, since Richmond, Kentucky is an awesome place. Everybody has West Georgia ninth. And Torvik projects them at 6-10, but Mac goes lower at 5-11.
Tourney Champ, Player Of The Year And Coach Of The Year
Troy says it is hard not to pick Central Arkansas to win the conference tournament. Then he asks if anybody wants to talk him off it. Huff wants Austin Peay from the two spot, because discipline and defense get it done. Mac rides Tarleton again, pointing to the spending and those facilities. For player of the year, Huff likes Marshall at Austin Peay as a versatile forward who could average a double-double. Troy takes Ty Robinson from Central Arkansas. And Mac goes with Caleb Blackwell, who averaged double figures at UTEP and shot about 40% from three, if Mac remembers right.
Coach of the year completes the Tarleton clean sweep for Mac. His logic is simple, since Hott wins it if they take the regular season in year one. Troy throws a dart at Ford, reasoning that a third- or fourth-place finish with one returner wins the award. Huff briefly picks Stetson’s Donnie Jones before remembering that was a different conference, so he settles on Schulman. Then the guys set a bar for the title. With nine teams the schedule is 16 games, and Huff and Mac both say 12-4 gets it done. Troy goes 13 wins to top them, but he does not see anybody running away at 15-1.
Podcast Chapters
00:00 Download the SGPN App Today!
01:01 Brand New UAC Preview
03:21 Nine Teams and the UAC Map
07:54 Coaches and Results Recap
14:42 Stock Up, Stock Down
19:03 Regular Season: Central Arkansas, Tarleton, Austin Peay
21:47 Four Spot and Down: Little Rock, UTA, EKU
30:19 Tourney Winner, Player of the Year, Coach of the Year
35:05 12 and Four Gets It Done
37:45 Sign-Off & Socials
