For most college basketball teams, players are preparing for finals. For those of us watching the sport, we’re preparing for midterms, so to speak.

As the non-conference seasons start to wrap up and league play to begin around the new year, Athlon is looking back and looking ahead at each conference.

We’ll start with the ACC where Duke has pulled off the impossible and managed to surprise people.

EARLY SEASON CONFERENCE CATCHUP: ACC

Basketball season is in full swing, which for the ACC and Big Ten is a welcome sight.

The early season tournament season is under way, first with the NIT Tip-Off and now the Puerto Rico Classic, beginning Thursday.

The even in San Juan will be a proving ground for the major teams involved. For NC State, it’s a chance to prove the Wolfpack belong in the national elite. For Oklahoma State, Tennessee and UMass, it’s a chance to prove they’re ready to contend for the NCAA Tournament.

Here’s our preview of the action down in Puerto Rico

After a long wait, NC State’s hopes for ACC supremacy may be realized. The Wolfpack have not won an ACC regular season title since 1989 and haven’t won the ACC tournament since 1987.

Sometimes a coach inherits a bad team or steps into a program where the university simply does not invest in basketball. In some cases, through recruiting, Xs and Os and inspiration, that coach can turn a bad team into a good or even great one.

The guys on this list are not those coaches. Here are the 20 worst coaching tenures in the six major conference since the NCAA Tournament expanded in 1985.

Even after every recruit signed, after players were drafted, and after (nearly) every coaching change was made, college basketball news impacting the 2012-13 season continued to break through the late summer and early fall.

The much-anticipated college football season is almost here, and we cannot wait for toe to meet leather on the gridiron. From Cowboys Stadium to the Rose Bowl to the Georgia Dome, here are the top intersectional games to put on your calendar for August and September.

College football season hasn’t begun, but here at Athlon we’re already hard at work in thinking about the 2012-13 basketball season. Believe us, the season will be here before you know it.

Every team has questions about the upcoming season, but some are bigger than others.

Athlon Sports likes a challenge.