Only one college basketball program has multiple CBS Sports First Team All-Americans. It’s not Duke or Kentucky, North Carolina or Kansas.
It’s not Indiana.
It’s actually Indiana’s in-state rival and the preseason No. 1 team in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, Purdue, which is led by Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn, both of whom were voted First Team All-Americans this preseason by a panel of CBS Sports writers and analysts. They’re joined on the First Team by Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, UCLA guard Donovan Dent and Texas Tech forward JT Toppin. That means 60% of the CBS Sports First Team All-Americans play for Big Ten programs, which is among the reasons some believe this conference that hasn’t won a national championship since Michigan State did it in 2000 could snap one of the sport’s weirdest streaks in April.
The Second Team features two more Big Ten players — namely Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz and Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg,
They and the others listed are among the players expected to star in what should be a fun season of college basketball, one that is now less than two weeks away from starting on Nov. 3 with a first-day schedule highlighted by No. 3 Florida against No. 13 Arizona inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Note: The 2025-26 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.
2025-26 CBS Sports Preseason All-America First Team
Braden Smith | Purdue | G | Sr. (unanimous)
Smith is the only First Team All-American from last season who is returning in the sport, and his three seasons at powerhouse Purdue – during which they have won 87 games,…
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