It is college basketball season, and it has begun again. The MRI will be tracking all the Division 1 teams again this year, for the fifth time. And just to make things more difficult for me, the league added 4 new teams this year bringing the total to 330. When I started five years ago, there were 317. Where do these teams come from?

This year's answer to that question may be the strangest yet. This year, the four new teams the MRI will be tracking are Northern Colorado, UC Davis, Longwood, and Utah Valley State.

Northern Colorado is not a new opponent for many Division 1 teams. They have been playing teams for a couple of years, but this is the first year that they play a full slate of Division 1 games. So far, with two games under their belt this year, they have shown that they have a long way to go in the league. Their opening game of the season saw them lose by 50 to Syracuse. They followed that up by losing by 13 to Bucknell. That second game might have been closer had Northern Colorado scored more than 9 points in the first half.

UC Davis will be playing in the Big West starting in 2007. That means 3 seasons as an Independent unless something changes early as has happened many times, most recently with Georgia State moving up their schedule. UC Davis was previously a big name in Division II. UC Davis has a non-D1 game against UC-Santa Cruz before opening their Division 1 season against Utah State on November 27th (barely making it before the opening MRI stats are to be released).

Longwood, located in Virginia, doesn't have a destination picked out in Division 1 yet, and they have a lot to prove before anyone will pick them up. Undersized and without much experience at the D-1 level, Longwood will be struggling to win many games this season, their first out of Division II. They will tip off their season on November 19th against Columbia.

And here is the one that will leave you scratching your head. Welcome Utah Valley State to Division 1. Where are they from? Utah Valley State was a Junior College last year. Yes, last year, they battled other 2-year colleges for supremacy and this year will be facing teams such as Nebraska, Weber State, and Oral Roberts. At least they have senior guard Ronnie Price to lead the team. Price was picked by Street and Smith as the top player in among the eight Independent teams. It may not be much, but when you consider where the team is coming from, it is saying something. Good luck to Utah Valley State. They will be hard pressed to win anything against a Division 1 school this year, but lucky for them, a big group of their games are against the other Independent teams. They begin their inaugural season on November 19th against Weber State.

The tracking has begun, the numbers are calculating. Close to 4500 games left to go before the champion is crowned. It will be another fun ride. I'll be watching.