By Field Level Media
Oct 19 (Field Level Media) – Florida begins the 2026-27 college basketball season back atop the Associated Press poll for the first time since it earned the top spot by winning the 2024-25 national championship.
The Gators were picked as the No. 1 team in the preseason poll, which was released Monday afternoon, after receiving 47 of the 59 first-place votes. It is the first time Florida will start the season as the No. 1 team since the 2006-07 season, when it was the defending national champion.
Florida returns four of five starters from last year’s team, which went 16-2 in Southeastern Conference play and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season before losing to Iowa in the second round.
The Gators also found out earlier this month that Kentucky transfer Denzel Aberdeen, who rejoined the program after one season with the Wildcats, is eligible after receiving a temporary injunction by the courts.
Duke received 10 first-place votes and is ranked No. 2, while Illinois is No. 3 and got the other two first-place votes. UConn and Arizona round out the top five, while Michigan State, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia and Houston complete the top 10 in that order.
Defending national champion Michigan, which lost coach Dusty May and four of five starters to the NBA, begins its title defense at No. 16.
Kentucky, which begins the season No. 23, is two weeks away from becoming the first program to reach 1,000 weeks in the AP top 25.
Purdue is the third team outside of the preseason poll, snapping the Boilermakers’ streak of 79 straight weeks as a Top 25 team, which had been the second-longest active streak behind Houston (127).
The SEC has seven teams in the preseason poll, just ahead of the Big 12’s six. The Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference follow behind with five and four teams, respectively, while the Big East has two. Gonzaga, which moved from the West Coast Conference to the reassembled Pac-12 this offseason, is the only team outside those five conferences in the preseason poll, coming in at No. 15.
AP Top 25 preseason poll
1. Florida (47 first-place votes) 2. Duke (10) 3. Illinois (2) 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 (FL) 15. Gonzaga 16. Michigan 17. Kansas 18. Iowa State 19. Texas Tech 20. Alabama 21. Southern California 22. UCLA 23. Kentucky 24. Vanderbilt 25. BYU
(–Field Level Media)
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