CBS Ranks Florida Basketball A Top SEC Team for the 2025-26 Season

The National Champion Florida Gators have scoured the recruiting boards and the transfer portal and found exactly what they need to reload. Alongside the Kentucky Wildcats, the Gators were ranked in the top tier by CBS ahead of the 2025-26 season when compared to the rest of the SEC teams. Tier 1 means they are title contenders. 

It is no surprise when the Gators and the Wildcats are the SEC’s top programs this century. The reload by the defending champions helps too. 

Not long after the Gators won their third basketball national championship, the Gators landed Princeton transfer guard Xaivian Lee. Boogie Fland from Arkansas and A.J. Brown from Ohio round out the other notable incoming transfers. 

The Gators also brought back key players from the title run last season, including forward Thomas Haugh, forward/center Alex Condon who tested the draft waters and center Ruben Chinyelu. Center Micah Handlogten, who sacrificed a year of eligibility for the Gators to win the national championship when Condon went down with an injury, is back too. 

Guard/forward C.J. Ingram and shooting guard Alex Lloyd join the team as incoming freshmen. Both are top-10 players at their positions in their recruiting class. 

The final piece will be whether or not big man Oliver Rioux plays this upcoming season. Gators’ head coach Todd Golden has said that he may not even after being redshirted last season. If he does play, it will be sparingly at the end of games. 

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