On March 19, the 12th-seeded High Point Panthers upset the Wisconsin Badgers 83-82 in one of the best games of this year’s NCAA Tournament.
Literally seconds after it ended, HPU coach Flynn Clayman did this on national television.
Clayman’s sweaty honesty provided a rare, authentic postgame TV moment — and therefore immediately went viral. (It also impressed Charles Barkley, so much so that Clayman and the Chuckster hung out at a cigar lounge at the Final Four.) The win was validation for a High Point program that had just notched its 87th victory in three seasons, making it one of the winningest schools in the sport over that span.
Clayman then brought his blunt energy to a lesser-viewed setting: the postgame press conference. In his opening statement, he hammered home that legitimate point about the lack of nonconference opportunities for most high-end mid-majors.
“It’s pretty obvious to me that something needs to be done about this nonconference scheduling,” Clayman said. “High Point and Miami Ohio are 2-0 in Quad 1 games. We couldn’t get games, they couldn’t get games, Akron couldn’t get games, UNCW couldn’t get games, Belmont couldn’t get games. We won 22 of our last 23 games and we didn’t move up one spot in the metrics. Not one. … We’ve won 25 games by double-digits. That team right there (Wisconsin) is a fantastic team that beat five top-10 teams. If we can get games like this on neutral courts and some home games, I think we’d know whose really the best teams.”
The first-year High Point coach was feeling himself, and rightly so. The Wisconsin matchup was only the third time in three years that High Point had an opportunity to face a high-major opponent — with two of those three tilts being mandatory by way of NCAA Tournament inclusion. The lone example of a power-conference school opting into playing High Point in the past three years was Georgia in 2023.
Clayman’s hope was that, by pulling a major upset, he could use his newfound pulpit to affect some change for the 2026-27 season and beyond.
That hope has become a reality. The Panthers’ high-profile tournament win combined with their coach’s widely seen stump speeches have led to one of the stronger mid-major nonconference schedules of the past decade-plus.
In an exclusive to CBS Sports, Clayman revealed High Point’s best games for the 2026-27 non-league slate. The big get? That coveted slot against a high-major opponent. LSU will be that team; Will Wade signed the contract this week to host the Panthers on Dec. 18, both coaches told CBS Sports.
Why did Wade say yes?
“It’s pretty simple: It’s a good game,” Wade said. “They’ll be a Quad 2 game, most likely. It’ll be a very tough game for us to win, but those are the types of games you need to schedule in the nonconference. We’ve always tried to do this, whether it’s High Point or Liberty or someone else. We’ve played Ohio, Belmont in these type of games. I’m glad the dates worked and we could make it happen.”
The dates worked because High Point’s president and athletic director both permitted Clayman to shift off another game that was previously agreed to on that date. When a power-conference scheduling opportunity arises, you don’t hesitate to do everything to make it happen.
“We have great synergy with our president and athletic director down to myself,” Clayman said. “In this era of college athletics, you need that to get things done. We had to move stuff around to make this LSU game work. Not every administration is doing it. It’s a team effort and I feel really grateful to be here. I know there’s a ton of coaches out there that don’t get opportunities like this.”
While LSU is the headliner, Clayman has parlayed High Point’s rise over the past three seasons into something even more significant: a stacked non-league slate for a Big South program. And there’s a mid-major matchup with widespread appeal that will soon, hopefully, be officially agreed to.
Miami University.
Clayman and Miami coach Travis Steele told CBS Sports that they’re in agreement to play next season, but the logistics of when and where still have to be hashed out in the weeks ahead. As for the RedHawks, Steele hasn’t been as successful as Clayman in scheduling to this point, which is unfortunate after that once-in-a-lifetime 32-2 season. But he’s still reaching out to most power-conference programs. (A complicating factor: The MAC’s absurd decision to go to 22 conference games next season, limiting Miami’s scheduling capability with only 10 non-con games.)
As for High Point, here’s who’s on the schedule so far:
Every school listed with the exception of Miami has done the paperwork. Liberty is one of the winningest mid-majors of the 2020s. Washington State is now in the Pac-12, which will be a multi-bid league. Saint Louis, like High Point, is coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance and will be favored to win the A-10 again — if not be a Top 25 team at some point next season. George Mason, also in the Atlantic 10, has averaged 22.5 wins per season the past four years.
High Point will also have two more non-league games (one home, one on the road) in the Big South/SoCon Challenge, which will almost certainly be against Furman (22-13, SoCon tourney champs) and East Tennessee State (23-11, SoCon regular season champs) on Nov. 18 and 21.
It’s a coup for Clayman. David Riley, the coach at Wazzu, was the first to work with High Point on a game. And then talks with LSU started not long after Wade went back to Baton Rouge.
“Will Wade was pretty quick,” Clayman said. “We have a mutual friend and he knew we were trying to find games. We reached out to almost every high-major. We did get a few more responses this year.”
The Panthers will bring back four key players from last season’s 31-5 team: forward Braden Hausen, point guard Conrad Martinez, forward Cam’Ron Fletcher and big man Caden Miller back. The Panthers, having built a roster worth more than $5 million, also brought in point guard CJ Brown from South Florida and Jason Rivera-Torres from Monmouth. The two were recruited by some teams at the power-conference level and put up big numbers at their previous schools.
I asked Clayman if he thought the virality of his postgame interview played a part in the scheduling success over the past month.
“I probably don’t think it happens this quickly, no,” he said. “I do think, from a metrics standpoint, people think we can be a top-75 NET team. And so it was on us to be in that top 75, because we were in that 80 range and that’s where you don’t want to be. That’s the worst place to be, in that mid-major 80-110 range. You’ve gotta be top-75.”
It’s unfortunate that Clayman is largely right. Most high-major coaches are dodging those mid-major teams that are potentially just good enough to give them a scare in November and December, the types of teams that could be 13- or 14-seeds come March. But with the 76-team era now upon us, that mode of thinking needs to be tossed out the window. (Even more so when you consider that Wins Above Bubble and Strength of Record are key résumé metrics that aren’t affected by efficiency rankings.)
There is obviously a pecking order when it comes to nonconference scheduling. The most important games are the ones between projected Top 25 teams. Ideally you get those on campus. After that, the neutral-site events involving the biggest programs is vital to college basketball’s place on the sports calendar in November and December. But there is room, and dare I say a need, for the 15-or-so strongest mid-major teams to get their chances, at least just one, against power-conference competition before Christmas.
It’s at the heart of why Clayman said what he said following the Wisconsin win.
“First and foremost, I am a college basketball fan like everyone else,” Clayman said. “It’s why I became a coach, and I think we can agree college basketball is special. It’s different than other sports. Teams that have access and chances to win against the big boys is what makes us special. Loyola Chicago, George Mason, Saint Peter’s. The opportunities and the access to compete is something we have to protect for the good of the game.”
It’s easy to talk about it in the middle of March after a mid-major upsets a power-conference team. Everyone feels the impact there. But now, in the middle of spring, is when more coaches need to be about it. The schools are out there, hoping more than hunting. This is when the schedules get built, when the résumés take root. Miami University, McNeese, Murray State, Belmont, Stephen F. Austin, UC Santa Barbara and many more are just looking for one big-boy school to say yes.
The story isn’t a new one, but that doesn’t mean it should be ignored. It’s been the curse of the Really Good Mid-Major for a couple of generations at this point. Maybe High Point’s schedule can be the thing that changes the dynamic from exception to example. Flynn Clayman challenged the industry and induced change. Maybe, this time, the message can have long-lasting impact.
