KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Small College Basketball and the National Awards Committee is excited to announce the Bevo Francis Top 100 Watch List for the 2025–26 season. Once again, the list highlights many of the nation's top student-athletes competing across NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA, USCAA, and NCCAA programs. Though the season is just three months old, these players have already distinguished themselves as top performers at the small college level nationwide. John McCarthy offered the following remarks on this year's Top 100 Watch List:

Oregon Tech junior Jackson Cooper is one of two Cascade Conference players on the Top 100 List (Elijah Jackson of Southern Oregon is the other) and one of 15 players from NAIA schools. Cooper is averaging 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists per game for the No. 21 ranked Hustlin' Owls.
 
"Congratulations to the 100 players on the Bevo Francis Award Watch List," stated McCarthy. "This is a highly prestigious list, as there are approximately 14,000 - 16,000 players that play basketball at the small college levels, and these 100 players have been instrumental in leading their teams to great success thus far this season. Also, thank you to the Small College Basketball National Awards Committee for a great deal of insight, and thank you to all of the coaches and administrators that nominated candidates for the Bevo Francis Award Watch List."
 
The Clarence "Bevo" Francis Award is presented annually to the player who has had the finest overall season within Small College Basketball. Considerations will be season statistics and individual achievements, awards, personal character and team achievements. This is an incredibly prestigious award, as this award will only be given to one player within Small College Basketball per season.
 
2026 marks the ninth year of the Bevo Francis Award. Past winners include Dominez Burnett of Davenport University in 2016, Justin Pitts of Northwest Missouri State University in 2017, Emanuel Terry of Lincoln Memorial University in 2018, Aston Francis of Wheaton College in 2019, Kyle Mangas of Indiana Wesleyan University in 2020 and Trevor Hudgins of Northwest Missouri State University in 2022. In 2023, RJ Sunahara of Nova Southeastern was named the winner, while in 2024 Elijah Malone of Grace College received the honor. Last year MJ Iraldi was named the 2025 winner. The award was not presented during the 2021 season.
 
On February 15th, the list will be reduced to the Top 50 players.  One month later on March 15th, the Top 25 players will be announced. On April 4^th, the finalists of this year's award will be announced, followed by the Bevo Francis Award winner being crowned on April 6^th.  
 
The Bevo Francis Awards Committee consists of the following coaches: Gary Stewart - Stevenson (Md.), Chris Briggs - Georgetown (Ky.), Mike Donnelly – Florida Southern, Richard Westerlund – Great Lakes Christian, Mark Vanderslice – USC – Aiken, Matt O'Brien – Southwestern (KS), Chris Wright – Langston (OK), Justin Leslie – Midwestern State, Raul Placeres – Maryville College (TN), Chris Martin – Loras (IA), John Lamanna – Whitman (WA), Brian Miller – MSOE, Justin Downer – Point Loma Nazarene, Matt Capell – STAC, Scott Moore – Grace, Keven Bradley – Hillsdale, Mark Rutledge – Southern Arkansas, Chase Tiechmann – Georgia Gwinnett, Mick Hedgepeth – Alabama Huntsville.