The 10 men’s college basketball programs most likely to win their first title in the next decade

In three of the last four NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournaments, we’ve seen a program that has never won a national title before come one win short of shedding that stigma forever. It was San Diego State in 2023, Purdue a year later, and then Houston in 2025.

The landscape of the sport has shifted dramatically in recent years (Have you guys seen this? Have you heard about this?) and for a handful of programs, that shift has resulted in a path to the sport’s top prize that seems clearer now than it ever has before.

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For varying reasons, these are the 10 men’s college basketball programs with the best chance at winning their first national championship at some point over the 10 years ahead:

BYU

There is no program in men’s college basketball that has appeared in more NCAA Tournaments without a single trip to the Final Four than BYU. Cougar fans, especially those with especially deep pockets, are desperate to be ride of this stigma.

The season didn’t go the way the program would have liked, but the fact remains that for 2025-26, BYU signed the No. 1 high school player in America, had him play a full, highly productive season for the Cougars, and then watched him be selected as the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft. The AJ Dybantsa experience might not have produced a natty, or even a single NCAA Tournament win, but it showed that anything is possible in Provo.

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If that wasn’t enough evidence, a year after stealing Big 12 Freshman of the Year Robert Wright IV from Baylor, BYU was able to pry him out of Kentucky’s crosshairs and get him back for a second run.

When the top talent in the sport is accessible to your program, your program has a clear and obvious path to a national championship. You’ve just gotta figure out all the other stuff along the way.

Purdue

Some Purdue fans will be quick to respond to this with talk of a 1932 Helms title, but the fact remains that the Boilermakers, despite being an extremely relevant men’s basketball program for the last…

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Publish date : 2026-08-18 12:00:00

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