Illinois basketball coach Brad Underwood advocates for an expanded league schedule

Illinois head coach Brad Underwood recently voiced support for expanding the college basketball schedule to a 34-game conference round-robin format. Underwood argued that playing every league opponent twice would improve the game, noting that the current structure limits the opportunity for teams to face all conference rivals. His comments followed a CBS Sports poll where coaches expressed varying opinions on optimal regular-season length, with some favoring 40 or more games. In the same poll, Illinois was ranked as the fifth-best team in the country, while sophomore David Mirkovic received recognition as one of the top players in the game. Current regulations allow teams to play 32 games per season following a recent one-game expansion. Underwood maintains that the growth of NIL and the quality of modern college players support further expansion of the regular season calendar.

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