We Speak Men's College Basketball

Gators Open on Top: Florida Leads Seven SEC Teams in the Preseason AP Top 25

Published

6 days ago

October 19, 2026

Florida will open the 2026-27 season where it finished the 2025 one: on top. The Gators are No. 1 in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 released Monday, collecting 47 of 59 first-place votes and 1,461 points from the national media panel. It is Florida’s first preseason No. 1 ranking since 2006, and the program’s first time atop the poll since the final poll of 2025, which followed its 2025 national championship.

Duke opens at No. 2 with 10 first-place votes and Illinois at No. 3 with the remaining two, with UConn and Arizona rounding out the top five. Michigan State, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia and Houston complete the top 10, followed by Louisville, Arkansas, St. John’s, Miami and Gonzaga. Defending national champion Michigan opens at No. 16. The SEC made the poll’s loudest conference statement, placing seven teams in the Top 25: Florida (1), Texas (7), Tennessee (8), Arkansas (12), Alabama (20), Kentucky (23) and Vanderbilt (24).

Unlike most contenders in the transfer portal era, Florida brings back genuine experience. Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu and Denzel Aberdeen all played on the Gators’ 2025 title team, and Aberdeen returned after a year at Kentucky as one of the players granted another season of eligibility by the courts. The No. 1 ranking is also a rebound story: Florida opened last season at No. 3, fell out of the poll entirely by early January, rallied to win the SEC regular-season title, then was stunned by Iowa as a No. 1 seed in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Coach Todd Golden shrugged at the ranking, noting the program has been No. 1 before and won a national championship before — and that is what he wants it to expect.

Elsewhere in the poll, Kentucky is making its 998th appearance in the AP rankings, two weeks shy of becoming the first program to reach 1,000; Vanderbilt is in the preseason Top 25 for the first time since 2015; and No. 17 Kansas features the nation’s No. 1 recruit, Tyran Stokes, plus Purdue transfer Trey Kaufman-Renn. The season tips off in early November, with ranked teams opening play on November 2.

Related Topics:2026-27 Season AP Top 25 Florida Gators Preseason Poll SEC Basketball Todd Golden

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We Speak Men's College Basketball

Freshman Takeover: Dybantsa Goes No. 1 as One-and-Dones Rule the 2026 NBA Draft

Published

4 months ago

June 24, 2026

We Speak Media

The one-and-done era did not just show up at the 2026 NBA Draft — it took over the top of the board. The Washington Wizards selected BYU freshman AJ Dybantsa with the No. 1 overall pick on Tuesday at Barclays Center, opening a run in which the first eight picks were all college freshmen, tying the 2025 draft for the most freshmen ever selected at the start of a draft. Nine of the first 10 picks were freshmen, matching a top-10 record set in 2017 and tied in 2025.

The parade rolled on behind Dybantsa: Kansas guard Darryn Peterson went second to Utah, Duke’s Cameron Boozer third to Memphis, North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson fourth to Chicago, Illinois’ Keaton Wagler fifth to the Clippers via Indiana, Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr. sixth to Brooklyn, Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr. seventh to Sacramento and Houston’s Kingston Flemings eighth to Atlanta via New Orleans. The only non-freshman in the top 10 was Michigan sophomore Morez Johnson Jr., taken ninth by Dallas, before Arizona freshman Brayden Burries went 10th to Milwaukee. National champion Michigan placed three players in the top 12, with Yaxel Lendeborg 11th to Golden State and Aday Mara 12th to Oklahoma City.

Dybantsa’s night was historic on its own terms. He is the first No. 1 overall pick in BYU history and only the fourth Big 12 player ever taken first, joining Cade Cunningham, Andrew Wiggins and Blake Griffin. A consensus First Team All-American, he led the nation in scoring at 25.5 points per game, and his 894 points were the second-most in a season in BYU history and the third-most ever by a Division I freshman — making him the first player since Purdue’s Glenn Robinson in 1994 to lead the NCAA in scoring and then go No. 1. His season included a BYU freshman-record 43 points against Utah, a Big 12 freshman-record 40 against Kansas State in the conference tournament, and Big 12 Freshman of the Year and First Team All-Big 12 honors.

The money matches the moment: under the NBA rookie scale, the top three picks are eligible for four-year deals worth roughly $69 million, $61 million and $55 million respectively.