Mark Pope is in trouble and Jeremy Fears Jr. is unwordly: Champions Classic takeaways

The 2026 edition of the Champions Classic is the most intriguing one in recent memory.

The annual showdown between Duke, Michigan State, Kansas and Kentucky has always been a core day in the start of the college basketball season with some major brand names, often with some highly ranked numbers next to it. But for the first time since 2022, three of them are ranked inside the top 15 of the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, meaning there are some pretty high expectations for the 2026-27 season.

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It was a night that certainly had some statements, with No. 5 Michigan State pulling off a wire-to-wire win over No. 2 Duke and No. 14 Kansas running away against Kentucky.

In the first major event of the season, what did we learn from every team?

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See who dominates Nielsen’s list of top college basketball fan bases

The Kentucky Wildcats and Louisville Cardinals have one of the fiercest rivalries in college sports, and new data shows that the Battle of the Bluegrass also features the two most devoted college basketball fan bases. Lexington, Kentucky ranked as the No. 1 market in the country for men’s and women’s basketball programs, according to the “Nielsen Scarborough Fandom Index” released on Tuesday, Nov. 3 by media audience research firm Nielsen. The index was created by analyzing data across seven metrics: apparel purchases, event attendance, streaming, social media following, TV viewership, radio listening, and overall interest level. On Nielsen’s list of the top 20 college hoops markets in America, Lexington’s index score of 289 took the top spot, followed by Louisville’s score of 277. Nielsen noted in its news release that both Kentucky markets dominated in every metric. See the rest of the top 20.
1. Lexington (Kentucky Wildcats): 289

(Jordan Prather, Imagn Images)

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See who dominates Nielsen’s list of top college basketball fan bases

The Kentucky Wildcats and Louisville Cardinals have one of the fiercest rivalries in college sports, and new data shows that…

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Publish date : 2026-11-11 05:22:00

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