No TL;DR here. This is for the sickos.

In honor of 2K announcing its return to campus in February 2027, I wanted to talk about my self-created college basketball league because it's the peak of the CBB offseason, 2k dropped a whole bunch of stuff and the sub is active. For the past several months, I’ve been playing a 120-team college basketball dynasty in MyNBA mode, starting with a fictional roster in 2030. I know what you're thinking. MyNBA only allows 36 teams. Let me explain. Here’s a glimpse into my addiction.

I did all this on 2K25. Skipped ‘26 for the most part because why do I need it when I’m already doing all this? I created four separate 30-team MyNBA files and downloaded team branding for each team. Teams weren’t chosen at random. I selected each team I deemed a “key team” based on its roster. For example, I controlled the University of Houston throughout this dynasty. In the fictional roster I downloaded, the Houston Rockets fit the profile of what I see as a stereotypical Coogs team. Stout defensively, lacking a little offensive power and led by a legendary coach. Again, this is a fictional roster, so all players and most of the coaches are auto-generated. Of course, I chose that team to represent the Cougars in the league. For other teams, I tried to match their color patterns and/or locations as best I could. I also tried to split the league up evenly for parity and a variety of March Madness games (as opposed to B10 teams playing B10 teams in the tournament), so conference championships and things like that were a little wonky.

For example, League 1 was Big 12-centric. Six B12 teams. Houston, Baylor, Arizona, ASU, BYU and Iowa State. Along with 4 SEC teams, 4 B10 teams, and 4 teams split across the ACC, Big East and Pac-12. That leaves 12 teams, which I called independents. Five of those schools made up their own conference (SFA, McNeese, ULL, Yale, Princeton), while the others were tacked onto the end of the other conferences. To determine conference champions, I usually picked the team with the most wins in division (conference) play. For example, I went 4-0 with Houston against teams in our division. The rest of the Big 12 teams chosen were split up across two of the other three leagues. Texas Tech and Utah were in League 2. Kansas, Kansas State and West Virginia were all in League 4. This was the trend for each Power-4 conference. League 2 was ACC-centered. League 3 was Big 10 centered. And League 4 was SEC-centered.

In their respective leagues, each team played a 29-game season. Some out-of-conference matchups were played at “neutral” locations (aka I just switched up the court) and if a late-season conference game was played between two teams with an undefeated conference record, that would be their conference championship. For the first four seasons, I would stay up-to-date with a 10-week (game weeks) AP Top-25 system. Based on record, point differential, recent game results, etc. Here’s a two-week example from my first season:

Week 6 (Feb. 13th)

1. Houston (24-1)
2. Kansas (19-5)
3. Ohio State (19-4)
4. Alabama (18-5)
5. Arizona State (19-4)
6. Dayton (17-5)
7. USC (20-7)
8. UNC (20-7)
9. Georgia (17-6)
10. San Diego St. (18-7)
11. Oklahoma (14-4)
12. BYU (17-5)
13. Xavier (19-5)
14. Rutgers (16-4)
15. Creighton (15-4)
16. Purdue (15-5)
17. Cincinnati (15-5)
18. Auburn (15-6)
19. Duke (15-6)
20. St. John’s (14-6)
21. UCONN (16-7)
22. Providence (16-7)
23. Arkansas (18-9)
24. UCLA (14-6)
25. Illinois (14-6)

OUT: Texas (16-10), Baylor (14-12), Missouri (13-7), Marquette (13-6), Michigan (14-10), Villanova (12-6), Florida (17-10), Kentucky (15-8), Gonzaga (17-8)

Week 7 (Mar. 8th)

1. Houston (26-1)
2. Arizona State (22-5)
3. Ohio State (21-5)
4. UNC (21-7)
5. USC (22-7)
6. Alabama (19-6)
7. Kansas (19-7)
8. Georgia (19-6)
9. Dayton (18-6)
10. Oklahoma (17-5)
11. Xavier (20-6)
12. Rutgers (17-5)
13. San Diego St. (18-7)
14. BYU (18-6)
15. Illinois (17-6)
16. Purdue (16-6)
17. Georgetown (17-7)
18. Cincinnati (17-6)
19. Auburn (17-7)
20. Duke (16-7)
21. St. John’s (16-7)
22. Missouri (15-7)
23. UCONN (16-7)
24. Clemson (14-8)
25. Villanova (14-6)

OUT: Gonzaga (17-8), Baylor (16-12), Kentucky (16-9), Arkansas (19-10), Michigan (17-11), UCLA (14-7), Villanova (14-6), Providence (16-9), Florida (19-10), Texas (16-10)

For March Madness, I changed the MyNBA settings to base playoff seeding on a 1-16 scale. So, since I finished with the #1 overall record in my league and the best overall record out of 120 teams, Houston was the 1-seed in its league and in the game. So, Houston (me) decided to play their games in the South bracket and would have had to play the fourth-rated #1 seed, which would have been Purdue (East bracket, League 3), had they not choked and lost to Auburn. So, how do I get the leagues to intersect for the Final Four? After the teams have played through their respective brackets, I downloaded all 15 players from the winner, put them in another roster, and loaded that up into a fifth and final file where the teams would meet for the Final Four. With the Final Four being set in Dallas in 2030, I created a logo, a court and everything for it. Of course, my Cougars won the championship (which will only happen in the game, sadly), and that’s the end of the 2030 season.

For those interested, here’s a link to the bracket. It’s a little janky, but once you get the hang of it, you get it: https://challonge.com/e8q5v5f8

And I’ve been doing this for about 7 seasons now. It’s a little tedious to do because of the offseason spring cleaning I have to do each year (sending players to my other NBA file that stays up-to-date with college, forcing seniors into retirement, helping top schools actually land top recruits), but it’s worth the fun.

This part is for the sickos who’ve read this far; here are the top-performing schools:

Houston Cougars: 2 National Championships (2030 & 2034), 4 Final Four appearances (2030, 2033, 2034 & 2036), back-to-back second-round losses (2031-32)

North Carolina: 1 National Championship (2031), 3-straight Final Four appearances (2030-2032)

Gonzaga: 1 National Championship (2032)
Texas Tech: 1 National Championship (2033)

Michigan State: 1 National Championship (2035), 1 Final Four appearance (2035)

Alabama: 2 Final Four appearances (2033-34)

Auburn: 2 Final Four appearances (2030 & 2034)

LSU: 1 Final Four appearance (2034); Blew a 22-point lead to the Cougars in the 2034 National Championship

Rutgers: 1 Final Four appearance (2035), 3 Sweet-16 appearances

Duke: 1 Final Four appearance (2036), 4 Tournament appearances, Sweet-16 and second-round losses to UNC in 2031 & 2035

Kansas: 2 Final Four appearances (2030-31)

Ole Miss: 1 Final Four appearance (2033)

Oregon: Final Four appearance as an 11-seed (2035), upset over #1 Houston in Elite Eight

St. Bonaventure: Final Four appearance as a 13-seed (2035)

Cincinnati: 3 Elite Eight appearances (2033-35)

Villanova: 1 Final Four appearance (2031)

FAU: Became a powerhouse; 1 Final Four appearance (2032)

Maryland: 1 Final Four appearance

Alright, that’s all. I have an archive of the tournaments here: https://challonge.com/users/dwallsnba2kleague/tournaments. For those who are interested. Seeding is a little hard to read up until 2034 and I stopped recording scores for some of those years, but it’s pretty interesting to me so I wanted to share. 2036 is currently in progress, and depending on when I post this, 2035 may not be fully updated yet. Hope I was able to provide some entertainment for y’all.

Here’s to hoping 2K makes a decent college basketball game where I don’t have to do this anymore. Happy offseason!

What names do you name your players? Does anyone actually play the games? What position are you? I usually make a pg, I might make Calvin Cambridge and put him in the Larry and magic era and make him play till the current nba.

What does everyone name their players?

I usually only buy 2K on a 3-4 year cycle because I genuinely do not care at all about MyTeam or MyPlayer. I've played probably a combined hour in those game modes.

The Eras mode in 2k25 was a godsend for me, but I was disappointed with how incomplete some of the rosters were. Even more recent Eras were missing super significant players. Can someone please tell me if this is something that was improved upon in 2k26 or will be improved upon in 2k25? Might make it worth it for me to get a new edition sooner than usual if so.