The State Farm Champions Classic is a doubleheader at the beginning of the season featuring Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan State. While the four are among the best programs in college basketball, some have critiqued keeping the same four teams in the event.
Kansas is the most recent of the four to win a national championship, winning their fourth in 2022. Duke last came out on top of the field of 68 in 2015, while Kentucky last did in 2012.
Many have scratched their heads at Michigan State remaining in the Champions Classic, with their most recent title being in 2000. The Spartans have two national championships, the other one being in 1979. College basketball writers, such as USA Today’s Dan Wolken, have questioned why Michigan State is still in the event.
While Michigan State was the No. 4 team in the AP preseason poll for the 2023-24 season, they did not live up to those expectations, falling out of the AP Poll for the remainder of the season after the first three weeks.
The last time the Spartans went to the NCAA Tournament as one of the top teams in the country was 2019, when they upset top-seeded Duke to advance to the Final Four, losing to Texas Tech.
While head coach Tom Izzo has brought his team to the NCAA Tournament since, they have not been considered a contender for the national championship in five years.
Meanwhile, other blue-blood programs deserve to be included in the Champions Classic. If ESPN won’t replace Michigan State, they should consider making the event a triple header, as CBS Sports insider Jon Rothstein has recommended. If there were to be a triple header in the event’s future, I would recommend the first game starting at 5 p.m., the second at 7:30 p.m. and the third at 10 p.m., with a 30-minute gap in between games for teams to warm up.
UConn Huskies
This should not come across as a biased opinion. Since the event’s inception in 2011, UConn has won three national championships, more than any other program in college basketball. Shabazz Napier helped cut down the nets in 2014 in an improbable run to what is still the American Athletic Conference’s only national championship. Then, head coach Dan Hurley led the Huskies to back-to-back titles, the first time a school has done that since Billy Donovan did so with the Florida Gators in 2006 and 2007. Connecticut has six national championships and seven Final Four appearances; only Kentucky has more national titles than the Huskies out of the teams in the Champions Classic.
UConn has produced a plethora of NBA talent and All-Americans, including Ray Allen and Rip Hamilton. More players from the program are expected to be inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame at some point, and all signs point to Kemba Walker, Emeka Okafor, Shabazz Napier and Tristen Newton, it’s just a matter of when it happens. Head coach Dan Hurley told CT Insider’s Dave Borges that he would like to see the Huskies be added to the event in a triple header, saying that none of the four teams should be removed from the event.
UCLA Bruins
Even though their last national championship came in 1995, UCLA still has the most national championships with 11, with most of them coming under legendary coach John Wooden. While it has been a while since their last title, the Bruins have gone to four Final Fours, with the most recent coming in a Cinderella run in 2021, losing to Gonzaga on a miraculous shot by Jalen Suggs. It is called the “Champions Classic” for a reason, so I believe the programs with the most national championships should be considered for the early-season event. UCLA has produced legendary players, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton and Russell Westbrook, who have all earned Most Valuable Player honors in their NBA careers. Reggie Miller and Gail Goodrich are also Hall of Famers from Westwood.
North Carolina Tar Heels
North Carolina has won six national championships and has reached a Final Four every decade from the 1940s to the 2020s. They have produced legendary talent from Michael Jordan to Vince Carter. The Tar Heels are always relevant and should have been included in the Champions Classic from the start. One thing I should point out is that some of the programs I have mentioned share a conference. In this case, there should be a way to avoid conference foes ever facing before conference play. North Carolina has won three national championships in my lifetime: 2005, 2009 and 2017. They also made the Final Four in 2008, 2016 and 2022.