Division I teams are 88-0 against non-Division I opponents

In the first three days of the 2026-27 men's college season, Division I teams played 88 games against opponents from outside Division I and won every one. All 88 were played in the Division I team's own arena. The average margin was 41.7 points and the median 44. The narrowest was seven points, the widest 85: West Florida 127, Southeastern Baptist 42.

Those games change what the opening-week numbers mean. Across all 236 finished games, home teams won 203 of the 223 played away from a neutral site, 91.0%. Take out the 88 games against non-Division I opponents and the figure for Division I against Division I is 115 of 135, 85.2%. The average margin falls from 28.7 points to 20.9.

The counts below cover the 236 finished games listed for Division I teams from November 2 through November 4, 2026. A team counts as Division I if it is listed in a Division I conference. Of the 440 teams that played, 85 had no conference listed. We checked each name and none is a Division I programme: they are Division II, Division III, NAIA and similar schools. West Florida, which the feed lists in a Division I conference, counts as Division I. Games can be corrected, so treat the counts as a snapshot.

Two different kinds of game

The 236 games split cleanly. There were 148 between two Division I teams and 88 between a Division I team and a non-Division I one. None involved two non-Division I teams.

Matchup	Games	Home-team wins (not neutral)	Mean margin	Median margin	Decided by 30 or more	Decided by 5 or fewer
Division I v Division I	148	115 of 135	20.9	18	43	20
Division I v non-Division I	88	88 of 88	41.7	44	64	0

Thirteen of the Division I games were at neutral sites and are left out of the home-win column. Every one of the 88 against non-Division I opponents was at the Division I team's home, so there is no neutral or away game to leave out.

The two kinds of game produce different scores too. In the 88, the Division I team averaged 99.0 points and allowed 57.3, and reached 100 points 42 times. In the 148 Division I games, a team averages 75.3 points, and the two teams combine for 150.5.

Where the blowouts come from

Of the 107 games decided by 30 points or more, 64 involved a non-Division I opponent. Of the 20 games decided by five points or fewer, none did.

The narrowest Division I win against a non-Division I team was seven points, and three games ended that way: UAlbany 74-67 Rhode Island College, New Mexico State 73-66 Western New Mexico, and Norfolk State 78-71 Randolph. The closest games of the week were between Division I teams. Cornell beat Pepperdine 86-85, UCF beat Florida Gulf Coast 96-95 and Iona beat Vermont 56-55.

The games are spread unevenly across the days. Opening day, November 2, had 182 finished games and 63 of them were against non-Division I opponents. November 3 had 9 of 28 and November 4 had 16 of 26.

There were 85 different non-Division I opponents, and three Division I teams hosted two: Morgan State, SIU Edwardsville and Norfolk State.

No team in the AP top 25 has played one. All 25 ranked teams have played, and every opponent was Division I.

What the numbers show, and what we read into them

The numbers show a week made of two samples that do not look alike. Division I against Division I produces a 20.9-point average margin and 20 games within five points. Division I against everyone else produces a 41.7-point average margin and none.

What it means is our reading. Early-season averages such as home-win rate, blowout counts and scoring are mostly a mix of those two samples, so a single league-wide figure says less about Division I basketball than it appears to. When we compare early results later in the year, we will separate the two.

The test for later is simple. The feed lists none of the 236 games as a conference game, so these are all early non-conference results. Once conference play begins, check whether the home-win rate between Division I teams stays near 85.2%. That is the number to beat.