AP Top 25 basketball rankings
The gist
Florida remained No. 1 in the first regular-season AP Top 25 men's poll, with UCLA jumping into the top 10.
The SEC leads with 7 ranked teams, giving an early read on the season's hierarchy.
How it unfolded
- Oct 19, 2026Florida tops the preseason AP Top 25 with 47 of 59 first-place votes, ahead of Duke (10 first-place votes) and Illinois (2); UConn and Arizona round out the top five.
- Nov 2, 2026UConn beats Gardner-Webb in Hartford, Connecticut.
- Nov 8, 2026On3 publishes a projection of the first regular-season AP Top 25, with BYU at No. 25, Vanderbilt No. 24, Kentucky No. 23, Iowa State No. 22 and USC No. 21.
Key terms
- AP Top 25
- A weekly ranking of the top 25 American college teams in football or basketball, voted on by sportswriters and broadcasters.
- SEC
- An annual preseason media event for the Southeastern Conference, a U.S. college athletic conference based in Birmingham, Alabama.
- preseason poll
- A ranking of teams or players published before a season begins, based on expectations rather than game results.
Source: Wikipedia