For all of the debates tied to revenue-sharing, big NIL deals, loosened eligibility rules, transfer-waivers and the supposed "chaos" those things have combined to bring to college athletics, there's no denying that changes to the system, dramatic as they might be, are keeping elite talent in school longer. The CBS Sports All-America teams are evidence. In any other era of the sport, players like Florida's Thomas Haugh, Vanderbilt's Tyler Tanner, Texas Tech's JT Toppin and Virginia Thijs De Ridder, just to name a few, would no longer be in college -- and De Ridder probably would've never even enrolled considering he's a former professional from Belgium.
As it is, though, each of them is an established college star who has passed on professional opportunities to either enroll in school or stay in school (or both), and they were all voted by a panel of writers and analysts to one of the three 2026-27 CBS Sports preseason All-America teams. Haugh and Tanner, among the favorites to be SEC Player of the Year, were joined on the FIrst Team by Michigan State point guard Jeremy Fears Jr., Kansas freshman Tyran Stokes and Illinois sophomore David Mirkovic. That means 40% of the First Team comes from either the Big Ten or SEC, which shouldn't be surprising considering those are the two wealthiest conferences.
Fears and Haugh were unanimous first-team selections. Toppin was voted Second Team despite the possibility that he won't be available to start the season after tearing the ACL in his right knee last February. The 6-foot-9 forward was the 2025 Big 12 Player of the Year.
The only school from outside of the Power Four (football term) with a CBS Sports preseason All-American is UConn (Silas Demary). Here's the conference breakdown of the three All-America teams: Note: The 2026-27 CBS Sports Preseason All-America Teams were voted on by college basketball reporters at CBS Sports, 247Sports and analysts and on-air talent from CBS and CBS Sports Network. Fears is a wizard playmaker who led all of college basketball in assists (9.4 per game) last season.
Fears' 53.1 assist rate was the best mark in the last two decades, according to KenPom.com, and he flirted with a mind-boggling 4-to-1, assist-to-turnover ratio. No Big Ten player has ever averaged more than 10 assists in a single season, but Fears could change that and put his name in the Big Ten record books forever. Fears' creation is vital for Michigan State's outlook in 2026-27, but if he can take one more surge as a shot-maker, the Spartans can start dreaming of winning six in a row.
Fears' jumper has gotten better every year, and if that trend sticks, Fears is on the verge of a historic season. -- Isaac Trotter Haugh's rise from no-name, three-star prospect to a preseason All-American is special stuff. The 6-9 forward passed on a first-round grade from NBA decision-makers to cash in on a lot money to be the face of Florida basketball. Haugh could easily average 17-and-6 again for a loaded Gators squad that is the sturdiest preseason No. 1 outfit we've seen in years.
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