AP College Basketball Poll 2026 Week 17 Rankings Released with Top Risers and Fallers

Duke will carry the No. 1 ranking into the final week of the regular season.

The Blue Devils remained atop the Associated Press Top 25 poll after easily dispatching of Notre Dame and Virginia in ACC play. A 23-point blowout of Kansas wasn't enough for Arizona move up from No. 2.

Texas Tech did make a big jump, climbing six spots to No. 10. Purdue was at the other end of the spectrum, slipping down to eighth from No. 15 after losing to Michigan State and Ohio State.

Miami (Ohio), the lone unbeaten team in Division I, gained two places and is up to 19th. That's the RedHawks' best position since 1977-78.

Week 17 AP Top 25

1. Duke (27-2)

2. Arizona (27-2)

3. Michigan (27-2)

4. UConn (27-3)

5. Florida (23-6)

6. Iowa State (24-5)

7. Houston (24-5)

8. Michigan State (24-5)

9. Nebraska (25-4)

10. Texas Tech (22-7)

11. Illinois (22-7)

12. Gonzaga (28-3)

13. Virginia (25-4)

14. Kansas (21-8)

15. Purdue (22-7)

16. Alabama (22-7)

17. North Carolina (23-6)

18. St. John's (23-6)

19. Miami Ohio (29-0)

20. Arkansas (21-8)

21. Saint Mary's (27-4)

22. Miami (23-6)

23. Tennessee (20-9)

24. Vanderbilt (22-7)

25. Saint Louis (26-3)

Last week started off with a bang as Kansas took down Houston 69-56 on Feb. 23. In keeping with the arc of their season, though, the Jayhawks followed that with a major letdown.

Coach Bill Self acknowledged the Wildcats, who were plus-22 in rebounding, "whipped us."

"I just thought they were so, so aggressive, and I thought that we played really soft to be really honest with you," he told reporters. "I mean, foul problems don't help. But still, though, we played soft. When we played them at our place, obviously, home courts make a big difference. But when we played them at our place, we made them not play great, and we kind of uglied the game up and there was nothing that uglied it up tonight."

Arizona Beats Kansas

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Kansas couldn't fall back on any Darryn Peterson-related excuses, either. The freshman standout logged 30-plus minutes against both Iowa State and Arizona. Matching up with the latter, he shot 8-of-21 for 24 points.

Arizona, meanwhile, continues to put those losses to Kansas and Texas Tech in the rear-view mirror. A win over Iowa State on Monday night means Tommy Lloyd's squad is probably a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance regardless of how the Big 12 tournament unfolds.

Over in the SEC, Florida continues to boost its NCAA tournament resume.

A lot of fans will have written off a national title defense by the Gators when they fell out of the Top 25 entirely in early January. They've instead won 14 of their last 15 games, most recently hammering Arkansas by 34 points in Gainesville.

Florida Routs Arkansas

01:30

Every Florida starter scored in double figures, and the defense limited the Razorbacks to 13 attempts from the perimeter, down from a season average of 21.7.

Gators coach Todd Golden said after the game his team is "playing really good basketball right now."

"I think we're getting contributions from a number of guys," he told reporters. "I think that's probably allowed us to become an even better team. ... But it's been the story of our conference season, it's been the story of our run. We're getting a lot of great contributions from guys, and when we're able to get rest for starters, those guys can come in and keep the score going the right direction, it's huge for us, and against a lot of these teams that we play, they're really talented but they don't have the depth that we do where we're able to wear teams down."

The SEC doesn't have the strength at the top end to match the Big 12 or Big Ten. Florida is the only conference representative in the Top 10.

Maybe the Gators wouldn't have reeled off their current run if they had to navigate the courses Arizona, Iowa State, Houston and Michigan did.

But they can only beat the teams in front of them, and Golden has his players hitting their stride at an ideal time.