Florida will start the 2026-27 men's college basketball season at No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25 poll. The Gators received 47 of the 59 first-place votes from a national media panel, the first time coach Todd Golden's team has held the top spot since the final poll of 2025, when it beat Houston to win the school's third national championship.
Golden played down the ranking. "It's cool, but like, we've been No. 1 before. We won a national championship before. That's what I want our program to expect," he said. Florida started last season at No. 3 but dropped out of the poll by early January. It later won the Southeastern Conference regular-season title before losing to Iowa as a No. 1 seed in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Florida returns much of its national title roster, including Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu and Denzel Aberdeen, who is back after a year at Kentucky following a court-granted eligibility extension. Condon said the disappointing finish is serving as motivation.
Duke received 10 first-place votes and was second, its highest preseason ranking since 2017. Illinois, third in the poll, matched its best preseason ranking since 2001. UConn and Arizona rounded out the top five. Kansas, led by the nation's No. 1 recruit, Tyran Stokes, and Kentucky, which is making its 998th poll appearance, also drew attention in the rankings.
Source: ESPN General · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing