As the 2025-26 NCAA men's basketball season rolls on, it's worth wondering just how important the first month of the year is for national championship contenders. With that in mind, RotoWire.com utilized TeamRankings.com to find the Non-Conference strength of schedule, ranked wins and record of the NCAA Champions from 2015 to 2025.
Non-Conference Resume of NCAA Champions (Since 2015)
Average Win Percentage | Average Ranked | Average Ranked Losses | Average Unranked Losses | Average Non-Con Strength of Schedule |
0.945 | 1.2 | 0.667 | 0.111 | 5th in nation |
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How Have Recent NCAA MBB Champs Fared in November?
Since 2015, the eventual NCAA champion on the Division I side for men's basketball has lost all of two games in November combined, with an overall winning percentage of 94.5%, speaking to the importance of hitting the ground (or court) running in today's college basketball world.
Last year's champion 
Florida went 8-0 in November, though the Gators didn't play a single ranked team in that time, while UConn went 15-0 in the program's consecutive title campaigns in 2023 and 2024 (with two ranked foes in that time).
Looking back, the last NCAA champ to suffer a loss in November was the 
Kansas Jayhawks in 2022, who went 5-1 that month with a 74-73 defeat at the hands of Dayton in the ESPN Events Invitational being the lone demerit for the lot.
The only other champion to lose a game in November was the 
North Carolina Tar Heels of 2017, who fell to No. 13 Indiana, 76-67, after beating seven straight opponents to open the year, including a 71-56 victory over 16th ranked Wisconsin.
All told, NCAA champs between 2015 and 2024 played seven ranked teams during November in total during that stretch, with UNC in 2017 and Virginia in 2019 being the only ones to play two ranked foes in a single month, while five teams played zero ranked teams during the first month of the season in a season where they won it all.
How Impactful is a Loss in November?
Given the fact that recent champs have pretty much run the table in November over the last 10 years, it's hard to state how impactful November losses can be, though we can say that both teams that had losses in the penultimate month of the year did so late in the month.
That's because KU fell to Dayton in the team's second-to-last game of November, while UNC's nine-point defeat at the hands of the Hoosiers happened in the Heels' final November game that season.
It's worth keeping all of this in mind as the 2025-26 men's basketball season unfolds, given the Gators 93-87 opening night loss to No. 13 Arizona in Las Vegas, potentially serving as a warning sign that a repeat might not be in the cards for Todd Golden and company.
Still, Golden's Gators are currently ranked fourth nationally on KenPom.com despite that hard-fought loss to the Wildcats, with UF being one of two teams with a loss in the top 50 nationally, along with No. 44 Texas.
Who Could Meet The Moment in 2026?
While the college basketball season is just over a week old, it's never too early to look forward and see which MBB teams could meet the moment come March Madness, including the current No. 1 ranked team on KenPom.com, the 
Purdue Boilermakers.
Matt Painter's team won over Evansville, 82-51, in the team's opener, with another tuneup opportunity against Oakland on Friday night before the Boilermakers head to Tuscaloosa to tangle with 15th ranked Alabama on Nov. 13.
According to KenPom.com, Purdue currently has the nation's top offensive rating, at 125.1, with a net rating of 2.65, putting the Big Ten power just ahead of the Houston Cougars for the top spot nationally, while Kentucky, Florida and Illinois round out the top five nationally.
In Houston's case, the 
Cougars play two ranked opponents this month, beginning with a Nov. 16 showdown with 20th ranked Auburn in Birmingham, followed by a Nov. 25 clash against 18th ranked Tennessee at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas.
The Wildcats of Kentucky play two ranked opponents this month, with a Bluegrass State tilt against 11th ranked Louisville at KFC Yum! Center on Tuesday, followed by a Nov. 18 matchup against 22nd ranked Michigan State at the Champions Classic inside Madison Square Garden.
Finally, 
Illinois has the most intra-top 25 games of any team in the top five on KenPom this month, playing 10th ranked Texas Tech at home on Tuesday, with neutral site games against the Crimson Tide in Chicago on Nov. 19 and against the fourth ranked UConn Huskies at MSG on Nov. 28.
What we know for now is that the Gators' early season loss to the Wildcats in Las Vegas has already trampled their 2026 NCAA championship betting odds, with DraftKings Sportsbook pinning Florida's futures at +1900 right now, well behind leaders like Purdue (+950), Houston (+1000), Kentucky and UConn (+1300 each).
