CUSA Preview: 2026-27 College Basketball Predictions & Best Bets Recap
Ryan McIntyre (@Moneyline_Mac) and Troy Chewning (@Troychewning) break down the Conference USA college basketball preview for 2026-27, a league now down to 10 teams after Kennesaw State’s title run. It ends with Ryan McIntyre taking Western Kentucky to win it and Troy Chewning sticking with Liberty.
Last Year Sets The Table For The Conference USA College Basketball Preview
Kennesaw State cut down the nets last March as a six seed, beating LA Tech 71-60 in the title game. LA Tech is now in the Sun Belt. UTEP left too, so the league drops from 12 teams to 10. Liberty won the regular season again, which makes it back to back. Sam Houston bounced back to second. Then Western Kentucky, LA Tech and Middle Tennessee all finished 11-9. Missouri State, FIU and New Mexico State sat at 8-12, with Delaware rounding it out at 6-14. So the floor is high. Ryan McIntyre (@Moneyline_Mac) notes that Liberty carries the biggest budget, but the rest of this league is pretty even.
Troy Chewning (@Troychewning) admits he didn’t handicap this conference well last year. But he has a good excuse, because the whole season comes down to three days and one bid. There is also no two-win doormat at the bottom to pick on. Sam Houston is the best example of the chaos, going from the top to the bottom and back twice. The guys call it the boomerang, and it shows up again in their picks. Home court matters here as well. Liberty and Western Kentucky have the two loudest buildings, while the Kennesaw and Sam Houston fan bases are slowly buying in. Troy also flags FIU as a program with money rolling in and a busy transfer portal.
The Coaches Who Run This League
The only new face on the sidelines is Joe Cannon at FIU. He comes over from Daytona State, where he won his JUCO conference four straight years. He also played at FIU, so Ryan McIntyre likes the idea of bringing back one of their own. Then there are the long-tenured guys. Ritchie McKay is in his second stint at Liberty. Inglesby is already in year 11 at Delaware. Ray Harper has taken both Jax State and Western Kentucky to the NCAA tournament, and he wins wherever he goes. Middle Tennessee’s McDevitt is about to hit nine years too. Hank Plona enters year three at Western Kentucky, the preseason pick to win the league. Nobody is calling it a hot seat, but that program expects to dance.
Troy Chewning is most interested in Harper, because Jax State has zero returning minutes and one three-star redshirt freshman. Harper has always done a lot with a little, so this is the real test. Cuonzo Martin is back for a second run at Missouri State, and he also has to go the JUCO route. Jason Hooten runs New Mexico State after a strong run at Sam Houston. His former assistant Chris Mudge took over there and has not missed a beat. Meanwhile Pettway is in year four at Kennesaw after winning the tournament, and he comes from the Nate Oats tree at Alabama. Can he repeat? That question hangs over the whole board.
Stock Up On FIU, Stock Down On Liberty
Troy Chewning goes FIU for his stock up pick, and it is a smart one. FIU sits ninth in the preseason poll, but the middle of this league is crowded. So one or two extra wins shoves them into the mid-tier. They add the seven-footer Hulse from Oklahoma, which matters more in a league like this. They also get Kaukenner from ECU and a Stephen F. Austin transfer. Troy sees them finishing much higher than ninth. He also floats New Mexico State as a rebound play if Payne gets ruled eligible. The Aggies were picked sixth, and he could see third or fourth with him. Hooten finished fourth in each of his first two years before last year’s drop to eighth.
Ryan McIntyre calls Western Kentucky a stock up even as the preseason favorite. The Tops bring back the most returning production and rank among the oldest teams in the league. Then comes the stock down argument, and he goes right at Liberty. They bring almost nobody back and are the youngest team in the league. McKay is a continuity coach, so all that roster churn worries him. Troy Chewning pushes back because Liberty adds Cooper and Kobe Campbell from Troy, and those guys will make a difference here. The bar is simple, though. If Liberty misses the top two after back-to-back regular season titles, that is a stock down.
Who Wins The League: Liberty Or The Tops
Troy Chewning admits he should take Western Kentucky, but there is too much money at Liberty. So he picks Liberty to win the league again, with the Tops second. New Mexico State lands third for him even if Payne is ruled ineligible, because Hooten always finishes up there. Kennesaw is fourth on Pettway’s momentum and the addition of Jacoby Hill from Jax State. Middle Tennessee is fifth with Javan Carter back and a transfer from Penn State. Then FIU climbs to sixth and Sam Houston sits seventh. He puts Harper’s Jax State eighth and hopes to be proven wrong. Delaware’s shooters get ninth over the JUCO-heavy Missouri State roster at 10.
Ryan McIntyre rides the Tops to win it. He admits the blinders might be on, since Plona has been on the show. But the fan base is starving for a winner, and they bring back guys who can really score. New Mexico State is his second pick, trading places with Sam Houston in another boomerang year. Liberty is third, and he agrees with a chat comment that McKay is the best coach in the league. Then he flips Jax State to fourth over Middle Tennessee, betting that Harper overachieves after a down year. Kennesaw finishes sixth again and FIU is seventh. Sam Houston drops to eighth, and Missouri State edges Delaware for ninth on a year-three Martin jump.
The Tournament Upset And The Awards
The one seed has won this tournament only twice since 2020, so both guys go looking for the upset. Troy Chewning lays out the full script. Liberty wins the regular season and McKay takes coach of the year. Then Western Kentucky wins the tournament behind Teagan Moore. DJ Campbell brothers split the Liberty votes, so Moore takes player of the year too. He expects Moore to post something like 20 and 6, and it is hard to see anyone else winning it. That is the cleanest angle on the board, because it bets on chalk in November and chaos in March, which is exactly how this league has played out lately.
Ryan McIntyre flips it. He has Western Kentucky winning the regular season and sweeping the awards, then getting upset in the conference tournament. His tournament pick is Liberty. They got upset as the one seed last year, and this roster is brand new. But he expects them to take their lumps in the non-con and be playing their best ball by the end of the year. Moore is also his player of the year in year three in the system. Plona gets coach of the year if he wins the league for the first time. Last year McKay and Mudge split that award, so a crowded top two could do it again.
Podcast Chapters
00:00 Download the SGPN App Today!
01:12 Welcome to the College Basketball Experience
04:03 Last Year, Fan Bases & Coaches
13:25 Stock Up, Stock Down
17:26 Who Do You Have Winning the League
24:38 Conference Tournament & Awards
27:28 Sign-Off & Socials
