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There are hard truths we all have to face at some point when we’re growing up: Not everyone is going to like you, your parents aren’t perfect, Rainbow Road can be fun but it’s clearly the most overrated track on Mario Kart, etc.
The same can be said for growing up as a sports fan. At some point in our lives everyone learned the all important lesson that preseason games don’t matter.
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For me, it was 1991. The Detroit Lions had just lost a preseason game to I don’t even remember who, and a young Barry Sanders-obsessed Mike on the verge of tears had to be reassured by his father that what he just watched “didn’t count.”
Didn’t count?
They wore their normal jerseys. There were fans in the stands. They had referees. They kept score.
What kind of upside-down bizarro world had I found myself transported to?
Despite the initial “your first dog just went to live on a special farm” vibe, eventually the lesson sunk in for me, like it did for all of us. Accepting the knowledge that we should more or less ignore the final scores from preseason games in the NFL, NBA, NHL and every other league that has a preseason is now universally recognized as an important milestone in the development of every sports fan.
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Now, for deeply imbedded members of the college basketball world, it feels like the lesson is being taught all over again.
For the unaware, 2025-26 was the first season where Division-I college basketball teams were permitted to play exhibition games against one another without needing a waiver from the NCAA. Before last fall, there were a handful of high-profile exhibition games between D-I squads, but those games had to be played for charitable purposes and needed NCAA permission.
So for the first time ever, we exist in an era where we’re getting what feels like a “proper” college basketball preseason where legitimate national title contenders are squaring off against one another instead of beating up on teams from the D-II, D-III and NAIA levels.
Join the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/overreact-college-basketball-exhibition-results-182822213.html
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Publish date : 2026-10-20 18:28:00
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