Southland Preview: 2026-27 College Basketball Predictions & Best Bets Recap
Ryan McIntyre (@Moneyline_Mac) and Troy Chewning (@Troychewning) are joined by Elliot Money (@IM_MonEy) for the 2026-27 Southland Conference preview, starting with McNeese hosting the conference tournament again. It ends with all three ranking the league one through 12 and picking McNeese to win the regular season.
The Southland Conference Preview Starts In Lake Charles
Ryan McIntyre and Troy Chewning open this one mad at the bracket. McNeese hosts the Southland tournament again, and per Elliot Money that deal runs through 2029. That matters because last year’s title game was not played on neutral ground. Stephen F. Austin went 20-2 and won the regular season. McNeese went 19-3, and the two teams split their meetings, each winning at home. Then McNeese got the final in Lake Charles and got it done. So every contender has to beat Bill Armstrong’s team in its own building. The guys call it rigged, flat out, and nobody at the table backs off that stance all show.
The league itself has climbed. Elliot Money points out the Southland was dead last in the NET about five years ago and finished 18th last year. Most of that lifting came from Stephen F. Austin and McNeese, because the spending gap is real. Also, this is a true 22-game round robin with 12 teams, so everybody sees everybody twice. Elliot Money loves that format and would take more league games over non-conference games any year. Below the top two, UTRGV went 14-8 and Corpus Christi went 13-9. New Orleans and Nicholls both landed at 12-10. Then the floor got ugly, with Lamar and Incarnate Word at 7-15 and East Texas A&M and Southeastern Louisiana at 6-16.
Three New Coaches And A Lot Of Turnover
Three new head coaches enter the league. Darian Brown takes over at Nicholls after coming over from Texas A&M-Texarkana, an NAIA school. At 31, Brown is the youngest active head coach, per Elliot Money. Brandon Chambers lands at UTRGV after working for Will Wade at NC State and McNeese. Elliot Money also points out Chambers has made nine straight NCAA tournaments as a staffer or coach. Jordan Fee comes to Lamar from FAU, so Lamar gets a branch of the Baylor tree. Fee also brings head coaching experience from Gannon. Then there is the move nobody at the table could explain. Fennell left UTRGV for Western Michigan, and Ryan McIntyre was perplexed by it, because Rio Grande has real backing.
Both coaches in last year’s final were also in year one. Bill Armstrong, a good friend of Will Wade, won the tournament at McNeese. Stephen F. Austin’s first-year coach won coach of the year, and Ryan McIntyre called it an unbelievable debut. Stacy Hollowell did as good a job as anybody at New Orleans. Corpus Christi has finished top four in all three Jim Shaw seasons. Rick Cabrera is in year four at Northwestern State, and two seasons ago the Demons reached the semis. Craig Doty runs Houston Christian with a short roster this year. So small ball gets a real test in a league full of athletic guards and bigs.
Stock Up Picks Start With Lamar
Troy Chewning buys Lamar first, and the reason is talent. Fee landed Quantez Berry in the portal, a get that still has the table scratching their heads. Nicolo Moretti also followed Fee over from FAU. So a roster that finished 7-15 should climb, because the pieces are simply better. Elliot Money goes with Northwestern State and puts a number on it: 13-9, five games better. The Cabrera system is finally cemented in year four, and a returning scorer seals it. Izzy Miles averaged 10 last year, and the guys think Miles could jump to 17 or 18. Double-digit scorers rarely come back to a Southland team, so that is a real edge.
Ryan McIntyre cosigns Northwestern State, then adds a second team that can’t really go lower. That pick is Southeastern Louisiana, and David Kiefer’s track record backs it. Last year was easily the worst Kiefer team, young and banged up. But in the four years before that, the Lions won double-digit league games every season. Every one of those finishes landed in the top five. Then came a late discovery on the show. Bruce Shingler, who worked with Kiefer at K-State, left Bryant to become associate head coach in Hammond. That explains the Bryant transfers headed to Hammond, and it pushed the Lions even higher on the stock-up board.
Stock Down On Nicholls And New Orleans
The stock-down calls land on two teams. Elliot Money pulls every investment out of Nicholls. Tavon Sadler left for the G League, and Brown is jumping straight from the NAIA to Division I. That makes this a learning year, and Elliot Money sees Nicholls finishing at or near the bottom. Troy Chewning also sees no offense in that offseason haul. But the bigger fade from that side of the table is New Orleans, with no Master P around. Singleton can really shoot, but somebody has to create those looks. Ryan McIntyre fades New Orleans too, after a jump from 12th to fifth and a lot of lost production. Hollowell maybe should have won coach of the year, so regression is the sharp side here.
McNeese Over Stephen F. Austin At The Top
Nobody picks against McNeese for the regular-season title, and all three land on McNeese first with Stephen F. Austin second. Larry Johnson is back, and Elliot Money pointed to a 63-60 LSU-McNeese box score where Johnson put up 20-plus. McNeese also adds Chapa Moore to what should be one of the best backcourts in the league. Meanwhile, Stephen F. Austin has to rebuild. Keon Thompson, the Southland Player of the Year, is gone, along with all five starters. The portal haul is big, but nobody knows if it meshes yet. So the guys expect the top two to separate from the pack again. Elliot Money even forecasts a gap of about five losses between second and third.
The Jammed Middle Of The Standings
Spots three through six are a coin flip, and Elliot Money thinks a single game may separate them. Last year, three through six were split by two games, per Ryan McIntyre. Troy Chewning goes UTRGV third, trusting the Will Wade background Chambers brings, with Corpus Christi fourth. Elliot Money goes Lamar third on the Berry signing and the FAU pieces Fee brought along. Ryan McIntyre takes Corpus Christi third, because it is one of the older teams in the league. Then the order flips at four, with the Islanders fourth for both of the other two voices. Ryan McIntyre has UTRGV fourth instead, since the Vaqueros are still spending at a good level.
Fifth is where Northwestern State gets its love. Elliot Money and Ryan McIntyre both slot the Demons fifth, while Troy Chewning has Lamar there and the Demons sixth. Then Elliot Money and McIntyre both put Southeastern Louisiana sixth on a Kiefer bounce-back. Seventh splits three ways, with New Orleans, UTRGV and Lamar each getting a vote. Elliot Money sees UTRGV taking a small first-year step back, then rising next season. At eight, Chewning trusts Kiefer and takes the Lions, while Elliot Money drops New Orleans there. Houston Christian goes eighth on the McIntyre board as the oldest team in the league. So the middle is a mess, and that is exactly why nobody agrees on it.
Bottom Of The Southland
Houston Christian goes ninth for both Troy Chewning and Elliot Money. Chewning likes Doty but worries a short roster gets beat up on the glass. Elliot Money also wants to see Max Alexander, a D2 transfer who averaged 22 at Northwestern Oklahoma State. So if Alexander can give 14 or 15 a night, Houston Christian stays respectable. Ryan McIntyre puts Nicholls ninth and New Orleans tenth. Chewning has East Texas A&M tenth, banking on fundamental defense from an international roster. Also, Elliot Money takes Incarnate Word tenth. Then the bottom two split hard. Chewning goes Nicholls 11th and Incarnate Word 12th, worried that roster only just came together. Elliot Money puts East Texas A&M 11th and Nicholls 12th, completing the stock-down call. McIntyre picks Incarnate Word 11th and East Texas A&M last.
Kiefer Is The Coach Of The Year Dark Horse
Who wins the tournament? Home team, says Troy Chewning, who can’t call the league rigged and then pick against McNeese. Elliot Money goes further, with McNeese running the table in the regular season and the tournament. Larry Johnson is the early Player of the Year pick. Elliot Money also tosses out MJ Russell of Stephen F. Austin as a dark horse. Russell came over from ULM after averaging 15 a game. Chewning floats Izzy Miles if Northwestern State pops. Coach of the year is where the best angle hides. Elliot Money has Kiefer, and Chewning called that a good dark horse bet. A last-place team jumping into the top half makes a strong case. Ryan McIntyre still goes Bill Armstrong, because a rigged league will hand McNeese that one too.
Podcast Chapters
00:00 Download the SGPN App Today!
01:02 Welcome to the College Basketball Experience
03:25 McNeese, Stephen F. and the Southland Setup
07:43 Southland Coaches: Brown, Chambers & Fee
16:09 Stock Up: Lamar, Northwestern State & Sheila
21:15 Stock Down: Nichols & New Orleans
23:52 Who Wins the League: McNeese or Stephen F.
26:08 Three Through Six: Rio Grande, Corpus Christi & Lamar
31:05 Bottom Half: Houston Christian, Nichols & East Texas A&M
39:47 Who Wins the Tournament, Player of the Year & Coach of the Year
42:50 Sign-Off & Socials
