UConn and St. John’s headline CBS’s way-too-early Big East tiers, as league hopes for NCAA-bid depth

The Big East, after two uneven seasons in terms of NCAA Tournament representation, is heading into 2026-27 with a familiar title picture at the top. In a way-too-early tier projection published June 4, CBS Sports ranked UConn and St. John’s as its only “Tier 1” programs, arguing both have enough roster shape and offensive identity to contend for the conference’s championship and, potentially, the national title. The framing matters because the league knows it cannot keep living on a short bench of true at-large profiles. CBS points out that the Big East has sent only three teams to the NCAA Tournament in two of the last three seasons, a pattern it describes as unsustainable. CBS’s approach ties that NCAA volatility to a different reality in spring recruiting, where it says the league’s increased “buying power” helped schools build more complete transfer classes.

CBS’s Tier 1 label is grounded in production and continuity from 2025-26. For UConn, CBS starts with a 34-6 overall record and a run that ended with a No. 2 seed and a loss in the national championship game. It then presents a projected backcourt centered on Silas Demary Jr., Braylon Mullins, and Jayden Ross, with CBS projecting major frontcourt upgrades via transfers, including Nik Khamenia from Duke and Najai Hines from Seton Hall. The through line in CBS’s write-up is defense and creation, including the idea that the Huskies should be “stiff” defensively across five positions, even with the program having to replace the specific winning plays associated with departures from the prior season.

St. John’s gets the other Tier 1 slot, and CBS’s pitch is built around Rick Pitino’s roster construction and a point-guard-centric offensive plan. CBS lists a 30-7 overall record and a No. 5 seed that ended in the Sweet 16 in 2025-26, then projects a starting five led by Quinn Ellis, alongside Ian Jackson and Tounde Yessoufou from Baylor, with Donnie Freeman from Syracuse and Ruben Prey completing the frontcourt. CBS emphasizes that Ellis brings a high-positional-size skill profile, and it frames St. John’s ceiling as tied to whether Freeman’s role can be simplified enough for him to function as a consistent creator and connector for an athletic group designed for transition offense.

CBS’s broader argument for the Big East is less about the two favorites and more about what happens one rung down. The article explicitly describes “growing optimism” that the middle of the conference can be “much improved” after a “strong spring of free agency,” again linking that to schools’ ability to recruit transfers with fewer red-tape constraints than CBS associates with other conferences. In addition to naming UConn and St. John’s at the top, CBS assigns multiple programs to tiers that should plausibly generate NCAA résumés. For example, CBS places Providence as a “Tier 3” tournament team and Marquette and Creighton as “Tier 4” bubble candidates, with both scenarios depending on internal development plus the impact of early-formed transfer rotations.

The NCAA-bid context behind that optimism can be checked against Big East’s own postseason announcements. In 2024, Big East teams earned NCAA Tournament slots for UConn, Marquette, and Creighton, which the conference’s recap describes through those three representatives. In 2025, the conference announced it received five NCAA bids. In 2026, the Big East again confirmed three NCAA Tournament selections, listing St. John’s, UConn, and Villanova. Put simply, the league has shown it can produce volume when the roster ecosystem aligns, but it has also shown it can stall when that middle tier fails to convert talent into enough “resume weight” for March Madness.

For what to watch next, CBS’s projection-heavy preseason approach places emphasis on summer practices and the timing of remaining roster-forming decisions. The article notes that international recruiting and eligibility protocols continue to affect certain players, and it highlights that Villanova’s outlook could depend on whether an international prospect meets a June 13 deadline to exit the NBA Draft. Beyond the specific names, the league’s offseason storyline is straightforward: can UConn and St. John’s convert their Tier 1 projections into another run that reinforces the Big East’s top-end status, while the Tier 2 to Tier 4 group closes the gap so the conference is not repeatedly negotiating for a thin NCAA footprint?