AP College Basketball Poll 2026 Preseason Men's Rankings Released

Florida sits atop the Associated Press Top 25 poll as it looks to collect a second national title in three seasons in men's basketball.

The Gators received 47 first-place votes to beat out Duke for the No. 1 spot.

Michigan, the reigning champion, is down in 16th. The Wolverines' three leading scorers (Yaxel Lendeborg, Morez Johnson and Aday Mara) all left for the NBA, and coach Dusty May did the same. As a result, they face plenty of questions.

Preseason AP Top 25

Rank	Team
1.	Florida
2.	Duke
3.	Illinois
4.	UConn
5.	Arizona
6.	Michigan State
7.	Texas
8.	Tennessee
9.	Virginia
10.	Houston
11.	Louisville
12.	Arkansas
13.	St. John's
14.	Miami
15.	Gonzaga
16.	Michigan
17.	Kansas
18.	Iowa State
19.	Texas Tech
20.	Alabama
21.	USC
22.	UCLA
23.	Kentucky
24.	Vanderbilt
25.	BYU

The general expectations around Florida couldn't be much higher. The Gators return Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, Boogie Fland and Rueben Chinyelu, and they received an added boost when 2025 national champion Denzel Aberdeen was deemed eligible to play a fifth season.

It's increasingly rare, especially in college basketball, for a team to have this much talent and continuity return.

Florida's status as the top dog will be put to the test early as the Gators will host Duke on Dec. 1.

Blue Devils coach Jon Scheyer and his staff cleaned up on the recruiting trail. They had the second-best class in 247Sports' composite rankings, and the group includes four top-30 prospects: Cameron Williams, Deron Rippey Jr., Bryson Howard and Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje.

Despite losing national player of the year Cameron Boozer, Duke has the pieces for another trip to the Final Four.

In 2025-26, Kentucky was a primary example of how an NIL payroll isn't directly correlated to a team's success. The Wildcats reportedly spent north of $20 million to go 21-13 in the regular season and lose in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

St. John's and Louisville will both try to avoid a similar fate after making a lot of noise in the transfer portal.

In the case of the Red Storm, they were left in limbo over the status of Keyshawn Hall, Quinn Ellis and Babacar Sane. The Cardinals were in the same spot with Seth Trimble and LJ Wells but at least had more certainty with their two biggest transfer additions, Flory Bidunga and Jackson Shelstad.

Trying to rank the 25 best teams in a preseason poll is always difficult because nobody has a peek into the future. The task becomes even more challenging when you can't even be assured of who will be playing where on opening night.