SoCon Preview: 2026-27 College Basketball Predictions & Best Bets Recap
Ryan McIntyre (@Moneyline_Mac) and Troy Chewning (@Troychewning) are joined by the Pump Fake pod’s Hoosier for the 2026-27 SoCon college basketball preview, going one through 11. ETSU is the unanimous pick to win the conference tournament, though the computers, and Noah Bieniek (@NoahB77_)’s numbers, love Western Carolina more than the room does.
Six Champions In Seven Years
Nobody owns the SoCon in March, and that is why this league is so much fun to bet. ETSU went 13-5 in league play last season and won 23 games. That was the breakthrough for Brooks Savage after a couple of 19-win years. Then the Bucs lost the conference title game to Furman, the six seed. Bob Richey’s group had sat at 7-6 in league play and lost four of five at one point. But the Paladins got hot late, won the conference tournament and then gave UConn a scare in the NCAA tournament. So the top seed went home again, and a six seed punched the ticket for the second straight year.
The parity goes back further than one bracket. Wofford won it out of the six hole the year before. In fact, the league has crowned six different champions in the last seven years. The Citadel, VMI, Mercer and Western Carolina are the only programs that haven’t gotten over the hump in that stretch. And the middle of the table was a mosh pit last season. Mercer, Samford, Wofford, Furman, Western Carolina and Greensboro all finished within two games of each other. So the two seed and the seven seed were separated by two games. Troy Chewning also pointed out that VMI won one league game and still covered something like three in a row. Because of that, even the bottom-of-the-league matchups are worth betting here.
Coaches Who Know This League
With this many new rosters, a lot of the SoCon handicap comes down to coaching. Bob Richey is the longest-tenured coach in the league, headed into year nine at Furman. Dan Earl enters year five at Chattanooga. But he spent seven years at VMI first, which puts him at year 12 in the league. Brooks Savage is headed into year four at ETSU. Then Tim Craft at Western Carolina and Ryan Ritter at Mercer both hit year three. There are only two new head coaches this year. Tobin Anderson takes over Tennessee Tech, which is also new to the league. Before his year as associate head coach at USF, he had the Fairleigh Dickinson team that upset Purdue and then a stint at Iona. Jared Haas also returns to the head coaching ranks at Greensboro after seven years at Stanford.
Then there is the promotion pipeline, which says plenty about the coaching in this league. Lamont Paris jumped from Chattanooga to South Carolina, and Steve Forbes went from ETSU to Wake Forest. Bucky Ball left Samford for Texas A&M, while Wes Miller took the Cincinnati job out of Greensboro. Mike Young also made the leap from Wofford to Virginia Tech. So who is next? Ryan McIntyre thinks it is Savage. Huff, joining from the Pump Fake pod, also called this a potential jump year for the ETSU coach. Savage has three straight seasons of 19 or more wins. And last year he finally added the regular season title with 23 wins. Because of that, a power conference job could come calling within the next couple of years.
Stock Up On The Mocs, Stock Down On Samford
Chattanooga was the stock-up pick that came up twice. Huff and Ryan McIntyre both landed on the Mocs after they finished tied for ninth last season. That looks like an outlier for Dan Earl, whose group won the regular season two years ago. So give us the proven winner bouncing back into the top half, and maybe into the top four. Troy Chewning went with Furman instead. He trusts Bob Richey to climb from a tie for fifth back into the top three. Then he added a late case for VMI, because getting Ricky Bradley back should mean six or seven league wins. Huff backed that up and called VMI’s guards the best backcourt in the conference. Also, Huff later named VMI his second stock-up team.
On the other end, Huff is selling Samford. The Bulldogs went 11-7 and finished tied for second, but he sees a depth problem and a slide toward .500. Troy Chewning agreed that Samford brings a lot of people back who did not play many minutes. He also got talked into the Samford fade himself. Because if Cade Norris is their best player, the drop from fourth could be steep. Ryan McIntyre went with Greensboro instead. Jared Haas is in year one with a roster that is almost completely new. And Ryan McIntyre recalled a slow first year for Haas at UAB. So the floor in Greensboro could be low. He also admitted he has always had his questions about Haas.
Our SoCon College Basketball Preview, One Through 11
The regular season pick is where the guys split. Huff and Ryan McIntyre both took ETSU to win the league again. The Bucs are old, they have length and depth, and they reload with jucos and fifth-year transfers. Huff also likes a physical, disciplined defense that does not foul much. Troy Chewning went the other way and took Furman first, partly to avoid putting bad juju on Savage. Then he put Western Carolina second, since the computers love the Catamounts. Both of the other guys said they would fade that hard. Behind ETSU, Huff went Chattanooga second and Furman third. Meanwhile, Ryan McIntyre had Furman second and Wofford third. He likes Kyle Giltner’s system after Wofford finished tied for second with one of the younger rosters in the league.
Troy Chewning slotted ETSU third, even with news in the chat that the Bucs lost McCollum. Next on his card came Chattanooga fourth and Wofford fifth. Huff went Wofford fourth and called them possibly the best rebounding team in the conference. Then he took a real swing with VMI at five. Ryan McIntyre had Chattanooga fourth and Western Carolina fifth, betting on Tim Craft and the analytics. Mercer landed sixth for both Huff and Ryan McIntyre, since Ryan Ritter has had good third years before. Meanwhile, Tennessee Tech is the real wild card in the middle. Tobin Anderson basically has a brand-new team in a new league. So the Golden Eagles went seventh on two cards and eighth on the other.
The basement belongs to the military academies, which can barely use the portal. All three guys put The Citadel 11th. Ed Conroy’s group won a bunch of close games on the way to seven league wins, so regression is coming. VMI is harder to pin down. Ryan McIntyre has them ninth at about five league wins. That splits the difference between seven wins two years ago and one last year. Greensboro went eighth, ninth and tenth across the three cards. Samford also fell somewhere between seventh and tenth on every card. But the widest split belongs to Western Carolina. Troy Chewning has the Catamounts second, but Huff has them tenth. He doesn’t think that roster can compete.
ETSU Finally Cuts Down The Nets
The conference tournament pick was unanimous, and it is the strongest bet on the board. All three guys took ETSU to finally get Savage over the hump. The Bucs have lost in the championship game in two of his three seasons. So they have been knocking on the door for a while. Also, the one seed won the tournament 10 straight years from 2015 through 2024. Then the six seed broke that streak in back-to-back seasons. Troy Chewning likes sprinkling an over on ETSU tournament wins if a book offers something like that. And Ryan McIntyre sees revenge on the Paladins, in what could be Savage’s last year in Johnson City.
The player of the year picks went three different directions. Troy Chewning took Ricky Bradley at VMI, because you know what you are getting from him. Huff went with Marcus Cal, who averaged 13.6 points at Western Carolina and now plays the stretch four at Furman. Ryan McIntyre liked Jayden Cooper, the South Alabama transfer who averaged about 12 points a game. And Savage lets his guards play, so Cooper could put up monster numbers. Coach of the year split three ways too. Troy Chewning went back to the well with Bob Richey. Huff took Savage as part of a full ETSU sweep. Then Ryan McIntyre closed with Dan Earl, because his Mocs are flying under the radar.
Podcast Chapters
00:00 Download the SGPN App Today!
01:07 Welcome to the SoCon Preview
03:18 Recapping Last Year in the SoCon
07:59 Coaches in the SoCon
13:32 Stock Up and Stock Down Teams
20:40 Who Wins the Regular Season, One Through 11
36:08 Awards: Tournament, Player & Coach of the Year
41:19 Sign-Off & Socials
