Final 2026 AP Top 25 College Basketball Rankings Prediction

Final 2026 AP Top 25: Predicted Rankings After the National Championship

There were four great teams at the end of the regular season - Duke, Arizona, Michigan, and Florida. UConn took out Duke, Florida tapped out early on, and now it's clean.

The Michigan - UConn national championship winner will be the AP Top 25 No. 1 team in the final rankings. The loser will almost certainly be No. 2, Arizona will be three - if it doesn't move up to two somehow - and after that?

Here's our prediction for what the final AP top 25 will be. (There's a shot we change this up after the national championship.)

Predicted Top Others Receiving Votes: Texas, North Carolina, Utah State, Saint Mary's, TCU

25 UCLA

Record: 24-12
Final Regular Season Ranking: 29
Preseason AP Ranking: 12
Final Game: UConn 73-57 (Second Round)
Final 2025 Ranking: 32

24 Miami

Record: 26-9
Final Regular Season Ranking: 25
Preseason AP Ranking: Not Ranked
Final Game: Purdue 79-69 (Second Round)
Final 2025 Ranking: Not Ranked

23 Wisconsin

Record: 24-11
Final Regular Season Ranking: 19
Preseason AP Ranking: 24
Final Game: High Point 83-82 (First Round)
Final 2025 Ranking: 16

22 Louisville

Record: 24-11
Final Regular Season Ranking: 23
Preseason AP Ranking: 11
Final Game: Michigan State 77-69 (Second Round)
Final 2025 Ranking: 21

21 Texas Tech

Record: 23-11
Final Regular Season Ranking: 20
Preseason AP Ranking: 10
Final Game: Alabama 90-65 (Second Round)
Final 2025 Ranking: 8

20 Kansas

Record: 24-11
Final Regular Season Ranking: 17
Preseason AP Ranking: 19
Final Game: St. John's 67-65 (Second Round)
Final 2025 Ranking: 37

19 Iowa

Record: 24-13
Final Regular Season Ranking: Not Ranked
Preseason AP Ranking: 37
Final Game: Illinois 71-59 (Elite Eight)
Final 2025 Ranking: Not Ranked

18 Vanderbilt

Record: 27-9
Final Regular Season Ranking: 16
Preseason AP Ranking: T35
Final Game: Nebraska 74-72 (Second Round)
Final 2025 Ranking: Not Ranked

17 Gonzaga

Record: 31-4
Final Regular Season Ranking: 12
Preseason AP Ranking: 21
Final Game: Texas 74-68 (Second Round)
Final 2025 Ranking: 23

16 Nebraska

Record: 28-7
Final Regular Season Ranking: 15
Preseason AP Ranking: Not Ranked
Final Game: Iowa 77-71 (Sweet 16)
Final 2025 Ranking: Not Ranked

15 Alabama

Record: 25-10
Final Regular Season Ranking: 18
Preseason AP Ranking: 15
Final Game: Michigan 90-77 (Sweet 16)
Final 2025 Ranking: 6

14 Arkansas

Record: 28-9
Final Regular Season Ranking: 14
Preseason AP Ranking: 14
Final Game: Arizona 109-88 (Sweet 16)
Final 2025 Ranking: 20

13 Michigan State

Record: 27-8
Final Regular Season Ranking: 11
Preseason AP Ranking: 22
Final Game: UConn 67-63 (Sweet 16)
Final 2025 Ranking: 7

12 St. John's

Record: 30-7
Final Regular Season Ranking: 10
Preseason AP Ranking: 5
Final Game: Duke 80-75 (Sweet 16)
Final 2025 Ranking: 11

11 Virginia

Record: 30-6
Final Regular Season Ranking: 9
Preseason AP Ranking: T40
Final Game: Tennessee 79-72 (Second Round)
Final 2025 Ranking: Not Ranked

10 Iowa State

Record: 29-8
Final Regular Season Ranking: 6
Preseason AP Ranking: 16
Final Game: Tennessee (Sweet 16)
Final 2025 Ranking: 17

9 Tennessee

Record: 25-12
Final Regular Season Ranking: 23
Preseason AP Ranking: 18
Final Game: Michigan 95-62 (Elite Eight)
Final 2025 Ranking: 5

8 Florida

Record: 27-8
Final Regular Season Ranking: 4
Preseason AP Ranking: 3
Final Game: Iowa 73-72 (Second Round)
Final 2025 Ranking: 1

7 Houston

Record: 30-7
Final Regular Season Ranking: 5
Preseason AP Ranking: 2
Final Game: Illinois 65-55 (Sweet 16)
Final 2025 Ranking: 2

6 Purdue

Record: 30-9
Final Regular Season Ranking: 8
Preseason AP Ranking: 1
Final Game: Arizona 79-64 (Elite Eight)
Final 2025 Ranking: 14

5 Duke

Record: 35-3
Final Regular Season Ranking: 1
Preseason AP Ranking: 6
Final Game: UConn 73-72 (Elite Eight)
Final 2025 Ranking: 3

There's a real shot Duke will finish fourth. Even with the untimely NCAA Tournament loss, this was the top team going into the fun, and it lost about as painfully close as possible.

If UConn beats up Michigan, there's a theoretical case to be made that Duke should be No. 2. But these are predictions, and the call is that the AP voters stick with the Final Four teams up top.

4 Illinois

Record: 28-9
Final Regular Season Ranking: 13
Preseason AP Ranking: 17
Final Game: UConn 71-62 (Final Four)
Final 2025 Ranking: 28

This is hardly a lock. We're flipping a coin here, because on one side, Illinois ended up in the Final Four - it's easy for voters to simply rank the four teams that played on the final weekend. There will be enough voters, though, who take Duke, who lost to UConn by the very thinnest of margins.

3 Arizona

Record: 36-3
Final Regular Season Ranking: 2
Preseason AP Ranking: 13
Final Game: Michigan 91-73 (Final Four)
Final 2025 Ranking: 15

There's a chance Arizona ends up No. 2 if Michigan wallops UConn in the national championship on Monday night. But no matter what, the Wildcats won't finish outside of the top three.

1 or 2 UConn

Record: 34-5
Final Regular Season Ranking: 7
Preseason AP Ranking: 4
Final Game: Michigan, Monday Night
Final 2025 Ranking: 29

At the end of Monday night, UConn will almost certainly be no lower than No. 2 as long as it's competitive. It didn't win the Big East Championship, but that doesn't matter. Knocking out Duke and Illinois should guarantee a top-two finish for the third time in four years.

1 or 2 Michigan

Record: 36-3
Final Regular Season Ranking: 3
Preseason AP Ranking: 7
Final Game: UConn, Monday Night
Final 2025 Ranking: 10

No. 1 or No. 2 - that's it. Thanks to the destruction of Arizona, there's almost no chance the Wolverines end up any lower than second, no matter what happens against UConn - even with the loss to Duke six weeks ago.