I'm very curious to see the impact of the credit change. Personally, I'm dropping all my D2/3 teams except the one I'm in a conference with friends with. For me, the fun (and goal) of D2 and D3 was trying to build a consistent winner that would make the sweet 16 every season and allow me to play for free. Of course that didn't always happen but it gave a different way for me to talk rather than targetting championships.
Now, this is ruined. Not only that, but the new system will reward coaches who go for super classes and chase championships more than coaches who attempt to build solid consistent contenders as reward points are unaffected by this change and still provide 100% of their previous value. Stacking 10-12 players in the same 2 classes and making a run at titles is the cheapest way to play the game now, in more ways than one.
I'm going for 18 teams to 12 immediately, with plans two drop to 11 once my final freshman class graduates. D1 is still fun on its own for me, Since I've mostly coached C and D baseline prestiges getting to the sweet 16 was already fairly rare so it doesn't really impact me at all in that case.
As of February 24th, 2026 these were the world numbers.
World: D1-D2-D3 - total
Naismith 110-65-60 - 235
Wooden 116-58-60 - 234
Rupp 133-52-61 - 246
Smith 113-50-65 - 228
Iba 134-42-66 - 242
Allen 127-54-61 -242
Crum 115-58-56 - 229
Tark 135-61-60 - 256
Knight 137-58-65 - 260
Phelan 108-55-65 - 228
D1 Population in order
Knight 137
Tark 135
Iba 134
Rupp 133
Allen 127
Wooden 116
Crum 115
Smith 113
Naismith 110
Phelan 108
D3 = 60-66 except Crum at 56
D2 = 50-65 except Iba at 42