Insider says college basketball only has two true Blue Bloods

The college basketball landscape is dominated by NIL money and the transfer portal. As a result, traditional powers get richer, while the rest scramble to field competitive rosters.

Before the NIL/transfer portal era, you had traditional Blue Bloods. North Carolina consistently competed for National Championships, while Kansas and Kentucky typically remained amongst the NCAA Tournament's Final Four.

UNC is a fraction of the program it once was, as are the Jayhawks and Wildcats. In a recent episode of his "Inside College Basketball Now" podcast, Jon Rothstein said the Blue Blood brand is dying.

“There are two programs in college basketball that are still operating as traditional Blue Bloods," Rothstein said. "It’s UConn and Duke. It’s Duke and UConn. And that is re-iterated when you really dissect the rosters of the other Blue Blood programs in college basketball. So I want to take a close look right now at three of them: Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina. As of today in the Rothstein 45, which I update every single day based on if there’s any roster changes in college basketball. Kentucky’s ranked 40th, Kansas is ranked 30th and North Carolina is ranked 26th. Of those three rosters right now, Carolina has the best roster.”

The Tar Heels' last trip past the Sweet 16 round came in 2017, when they won their sixth National Championship. Kentucky has no Elite Eight appearances since 2019, while Kansas last won a National Championship in 2022.

UConn won two of the past four National Championships, with a runner-up finish against Michigan this year, while has a minimum Elite Eight appearance in each of its past three seasons.