Arizona’s Motiejus Krivas, Florida’s Rueben Chinyelu and Louisville’s Flory Bidunga lead a look at the top centers entering 2026-27

A new preseason list from Busting Brackets set the tone for the 2026-27 college basketball cycle by ranking the 20 best centers in the sport and spotlighting a familiar through-line: the position still matters. The top of the list is led by Motiejus Krivas at Arizona, Rueben Chinyelu at Florida, and Flory Bidunga at Louisville, a trio chosen to represent the most consequential center play entering the season.

The framing matters because “center” sometimes gets treated like an old-school label in modern basketball. Busting Brackets’ premise is that the position is not disappearing, even as offenses keep moving toward spacing, pace, and versatile frontcourt skill. By building an entire ranking around centers specifically, the list is essentially a statement about roster construction and game impact: teams still need players who can win the middle, defend the paint, and change shots at the rim.

Krivas, Chinyelu and Bidunga are presented as the lead anchors of that idea. While the article positions them at the very top of the 20-man group, it does so within a broader argument that college basketball’s best teams still rely on identifiable big-man roles. That includes protecting the rim, screening and rolling, setting the tone defensively, and finishing inside when the action collapses around the lane.

Busting Brackets also treats the upcoming season as a moment to measure who can carry a center’s workload while operating in today’s tactical environment. Centers are expected to do more than score near the basket; they are frequently required to handle pick-and-roll reads, make passing plays out of double teams, and stay effective as opponents spread the floor. The list’s structure suggests these modern demands have not pushed the center position into irrelevance. Instead, the center may have evolved, but the role remains central to controlling games.

The value of a ranking like this is less about predicting outcomes in November and more about identifying matchups that can decide conference play in January and February. When a team faces one of the country’s higher-end centers, the opponent often has to adjust multiple parts of its scheme, not just its defense. Help assignments change, rebounding plans get restructured, and offensive possessions get routed differently to avoid turnovers or contested shots at the rim.

There is also a recruitment and development angle. A clear “best centers” board highlights a skill set coaches can plan around, whether that means finding a true rim protector, building an offense that uses a center as a hub, or developing a big-man who can contribute in both isolation and team spacing. Even if teams vary in style, the ranking implies that high-level center play remains a consistent differentiator across programs.

For what to watch next, the most practical test will be how these centers perform against quality frontcourts once conference schedules begin. If Krivas, Chinyelu and Bidunga are truly positioned as the top of the group, their games should show up in the areas college coaches prioritize most: paint defense, interior finishing, and the ability to affect possessions without forcing the entire offense through one skill. The 2026-27 season will also reveal whether the broader “center is still here” claim holds up across all conferences, not only among the listed standouts.