The defending national champion Florida Gators men's basketball team is ranked third in the 2025-26 preseason AP Poll, which dropped on Monday morning.
The last two runners-up, Purdue and Houston, grab the top two spots, respectively.
UConn, which won the national championship in each of the two years before Florida, comes in just behind the Gators at No. 4, with St. John's claiming its highest preseason ranking ever at No. 5.
Florida is returning a handful of key pieces from its title run, including preseason All-SEC first teamer Alex Condon and Second Team selection Thomas Haugh. The Gators also added Arkansas transfer Boogie Fland, who landed with Haugh on the Second Team.
It was an eventful offseason for Florida in the transfer portal overall. In addition to Fland, head coach Todd Golden brought in three-point threat AJ Brown from Ohio and Princeton point guard Xaivian Lee.
As ESPN's Jeff Borzello wrote in May, the Gators will enter the season with a deep roster and maybe the best starting five in the country.
“The Gators have a different roster construction from a year ago, when there were more clearly defined roles and arguably better balance and depth throughout the roster,” he wrote. “But now Golden has two shot creators and shotmakers in [Boogie] Fland and Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee in the backcourt, and one of the best — certainly the biggest — frontcourt in the country with 6-11 Condon, 6-9 Thomas Haugh, 6-10 Rueben Chinyeluand 7-1 Micah Handlogten handling the lion's share of minutes.”
Overall, six SEC teams crack the preseason poll, one season after the league sent a record 14 teams to the NCAA Tournament. After the Gators, Kentucky is the second-highest-ranked SEC school at No. 9. Arkansas (14), Alabama (15), Tennessee (18) and Auburn (20) are also ranked.
Fans will find out early on how much of the preseason hype is justified for Florida. The Gators open the season November 3 against No. 13 Arizona, and also face UConn and No. 6 Duke in the non-conference.
