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We start 2024 with just Houston, James Madison and Ole Miss left without a blemish. Baylor, Arizona, Oklahoma and Clemson all made it more than a month into the season in their company, but each faltered just before Christmas, leaving the final three undefeated teams atop the heap as conference play heats up.

Of the trio, only Houston was expected to be here before the season. In their first campaign as members of the Big 12, the Cougars played a relatively light nonconference schedule. Of their 13 wins, nine are classified as Quad 3 or 4 and none have come against teams presently ranked in the AP poll. Nonetheless, Houston has risen to No. 1 in the KenPom.com rankings behind a ruthless defense holding foes to just 49.4 points per game.

But will the Cougars be the last unbeaten team standing? They play in the toughest conference in the country and two of their first three Big 12 games come on the road. James Madison began the season with a victory at Michigan State and has won eight-straight games by double digits heading into the heart of Sun Belt play. Ole Miss starts its SEC schedule with a tough road test at Tennessee on Saturday but that's followed by manageable games against Florida, Vanderbilt and LSU.

So, which of the three unbeaten teams will be the last one standing? Our writers are making their picks for this week's Dribble Handoff.

Gary Parrish: Houston

Way back in the preseason, before a single game was played, I said on the Eye On College Basketball Podcast that Houston would be college basketball's last undefeated team. So I'm not going to change now -- not when the Cougars are 13-0 and big favorites at home this weekend in their Big 12 opener against West Virginia. After that, though, things do get difficult with back-to-back road games at Iowa State (Tuesday) and TCU (Jan. 13), meaning reaching 16-0 isn't guaranteed. So some of this prediction is based on Ole Miss and James Madison losing soon, which is very much possible considering James Madison is at Louisiana on Thursday and Ole Miss is at Tennessee on Saturday. The Dukes might lose. The Rebels should. And if both of those things happen, Kelvin Sampson's Cougars would then be the sport's only undefeated team when they wake up Sunday morning. 

Matt Norlander: James Madison

Ole Miss plays at Tennessee on Saturday, the Rebels are not ranked in the top 60 of any predictive metric, so yeah, I can't jump in here and say Chris Beard's team is making it last. The Dukes, having gotten through Thursday night's test at Louisiana, are now staring down four of their next five at home in the Sun Belt. The next one is on the road, Saturday at 6-7 Southern Miss, but beyond that? JMU needs to stay strong while Houston plays at Iowa State and TCU. It's a pretty good toss-up, and we don't always get a season wherein multiple undefeateds are still out there by mid-January. This year we've got a decent shot. 

Kyle Boone: James Madison

No undefeated team has had an easier path thus far than has James Madison en route to its 13-0 record, and no undefeated team has an easier path ahead than James Madison to maintaining its unblemished record. The Dukes are the class of a Sun Belt that may provide resistance from time to time, particularly on the road against the likes of Louisiana and App State, but KenPom.com currently projects them to be a favorite in each of their remaining regular season games. Meanwhile, Houston has the brutal Big 12 to contend with and Ole Miss has a wide-open-but-still-challenging SEC slate to run through, both of which are likely to provide far more resistance -- and by extension provide far more opportunities for losses much more quickly -- than JMU will have in a lesser league.

David Cobb: Houston

Houston opens Big 12 play with a home game against a struggling West Virginia team on Saturday. A win there may be all the Cougars need to become the last unbeaten team standing in college basketball. Ole Miss faces a brutal road test at Tennessee to begin SEC play on the same day after playing a light nonconference schedule and is likely to take its first loss there. Meanwhile, James Madison must play road games against Louisiana and Southern Mississippi on Thursday and Saturday after those two teams won the Sun Belt Tournament and Sun Belt regular season titles, respectively, last season.

Even if James Madison survives the weekend unbeaten, Houston still has the tools to be the undefeated team standing because of how ruthless it is defensively. Opponents are averaging just 49.4 points per game against the Cougars this season, and defense travels. Stepping up to the Big 12 is obviously a marked uptick in competition for coach Kelvin Sampson's club, but the Cougars look like national title contenders. They also don't have to play Kansas until Feb. 3, which will help on their quest to be the last undefeated team standing. 

Cameron Salerno: James Madison

Similar to what my colleagues have already written, I can't get behind Ole Miss being the last unbeaten team left standing because of how difficult the schedule gets. The Rebels travel to Knoxville, Tennessee, this weekend to face No. 5 Tennessee and it's hard to imagine Chris Beard's program keeping the streak alive beyond that. If it does, it faces Florida, Vanderbilt, LSU, Auburn and Arkansas the next five games.

That means it's down to Houston or James Madison and to be frank ... they have very different opponents the next month of the season. Houston doesn't face a Top 25 opponent in Big 12 play until BYU near the end of the month, but there is bound to be an upset along the way. As for James Madison, they should be favored in most (if not all) of its games the remainder of the season. James Madison seems like the (safe) and right pick.