NBA 2K26 Is Adding 16 Iconic Colleges to This Year’s Game
Just in time for March Madness, NBA 2K26 is adding players from some of the biggest brands in college basketball.
2K26 MyTEAM Season 5 will include content from Duke men’s basketball, UConn women’s basketball and many more squads, but there is a catch.
The number of teams is limited, and you can’t just pick your team and try to win a championship, either.
Here is what we know.
What schools are coming to the game?
Beginning Friday, NBA 2k26 owners will have access to new content from 16 college basketball teams.
Those teams are:
- Arizona
- Baylor
- Duke
- Houston
- UCLA
- Kansas
- Louisville
- Texas
- Michigan
- Michigan State
- Purdue
- Kentucky
- Florida
- North Carolina
- Ohio State
- Connecticut
Real players will be involved, too, though only some have been revealed.
Those include current Duke men’s player Cameron Boozer and UCLA women’s center Lauren Betts along with alumni such as Texas legend Kevin Durant and Paige Bueckers of UConn fame.
2K says select players from each school’s men’s and women’s teams will be available in MyTEAM, which will also include “special alumni-themed rewards.”
To start, fans will get a College Celebration Box that includes five free agent option packs. That can be found in the market on the game.
Then what?
According to 2K:
Current college players will be spotlighted daily via Challenge Games. NBA 2K players will be tasked with defeating an all-time version of the reward players’ college team, and upon completion will be rewarded an Evolution 94 OVR Diamond version of the featured college player. Playing 5 games with the player will evolve them to a 96 OVR Pink Diamond, and completing the final stat-based requirements will unlock their 98 OVR Galaxy Opal version!
Season 5 is set to run through March 30 and will include 41 evolution rewards for current stars.
Challenges will be found in all of the game formats one finds in MyTEAM: 3v3 triple threat, 5v5 clutch time and full-lineup games.
Aside from current players, the new season will also include cards featuring alumni-themed player cards of current and former NBA and WNBA players from their college years.
Those include V.J. Edgecombe of Baylor, Marvin Bagley III of Duke, Jason Williams of Florida, Richard Hamilton of Connecticut, Breanna Stewart of Connecticut and Draymond Green of Michigan State.
MyCareer is also included
If MyTEAM is not your thing, you can also use some of the college intellectual property in MyCAREER.
That includes throwback jerseys for Bueckers, Ray Allen and Kemba Walker of UConn, Arizona Wildcats Aaron Gordon and Richard Jefferson, Kentucky stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns and more.
School-themed practice courts are also going to be available along with mascots.
Will there be a full CBK game?
While college football returned to the video game world in the summer of 2024 with EA Sports College Football 25, a college basketball version has not followed — yet.
College sports business website ExtraPointsMB.com reported last June that EA Sports had proposed to create a game to be released in 2028, but the company changed course in September after some schools agreed to partner with 2K Sports for the type of content being released this week.
It turns out a full CBK game is coming from 2k Sports — but not until next year.
From the 2K press release:
“Authentically representing the scale of college hoops is an ambitious project that begins with our foundational college basketball experience available in early 2027. We’ll have more details to share on that in the future…”
Many college basketball video games existed on earlier gaming systems, though none have been released in the past decade-plus.
Some of those titles included Dick Vitale’s ‘Awesome Baby! College Hoops, Coach K College Basketball, ESPN College Hoops 2K5 and College Slam (a college version of NBA Jam).