Florida enters the 2026-27 season with all the shine that comes with being No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25, but the first tune-up of the fall showed there’s still some smoothing out to do.
Todd Golden’s team opened exhibition play Sunday with an 82-76 overtime loss to Baylor on a neutral court in Jacksonville. Florida’s biggest problem in that one was the kind of shooting night that can wreck a game fast, especially from 3-point range. That’s the area the Gators were expected to improve after bringing back Denzel Aberdeen, who played a key role in the program’s national championship run in 2025.
Even with that stumble, the AP voters gave Florida the top spot in the preseason poll. The Gators collected 1,461 points and 47 first-place votes, finishing 50 points ahead of No.
2 Duke, which had 1,411 points and 10 first-place votes. No.
3 Illinois was next with 1,342 points and two first-place votes.
The ranking reflects just how much Florida has coming back. The Gators return four starters and 81.8% of last season’s scoring, a foundation that made them an obvious choice to start the year at the top. That’s the kind of continuity that tends to catch voters’ attention right away.
The SEC showed up in a big way in the preseason poll, with seven teams in the top 25. Florida leads the pack, followed by Texas at No.
7, Tennessee at No. 8, Arkansas at No.
12, Alabama at No. 20, Kentucky at No. 23 and Vanderbilt at No.
- Missouri sits just outside the rankings at No. 26 in effect with 167 points, while Texas A&M and Auburn also received votes on the initial ballot.
Florida gets another exhibition shot Oct. 27 against Stetson inside the O’Connell Center. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET, and the game will air on SEC Network+.
Preseason AP Top 25 college basketball rankings
- Florida - 0-0, 1461 points, 47 first-place votes
- Duke - 0-0, 1411 points, 10 first-place votes
- Illinois - 0-0, 1342 points, 2 first-place votes
- UConn - 0-0, 1241 points
- Arizona - 0-0, 1214 points
- Michigan St - 0-0, 1203 points
- Texas - 0-0, 1040 points
- Tennessee - 0-0, 932 points
- Virginia - 0-0, 874 points
- Houston - 0-0, 829 points
- Louisville - 0-0, 822 points
- Arkansas - 0-0, 760 points
- St.
John’s - 0-0, 669 points
14.
Miami - 0-0, 650 points
15.
Gonzaga - 0-0, 637 points
16.
Michigan - 0-0, 605 points
17.
Kansas - 0-0, 504 points
18.
Iowa St - 0-0, 475 points
19.
Texas Tech - 0-0, 466 points
20.
Alabama - 0-0, 374 points
21.
USC - 0-0, 306 points
22.
UCLA - 0-0, 250 points
23.
Kentucky - 0-0, 243 points
24.
Vanderbilt - 0-0, 241 points
25.
BYU - 0-0, 179 points
In Other News...
Tramell Jones Jr. Just Gave Florida A Reason To Believe
A freshman making his first career start is rarely asked to steady a program against a top-10 opponent, but Tramell Jones Jr. walked into that kind of assignment and gave Florida exactly the kind of calm it needed. The Gators rallied from a 17-3 deficit to beat seventh-ranked Texas 27-24, and Jones played a central role in getting them back into it, completing 22 of 35 passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns.
For Florida, the win was about more than surviving an early hole. It was about seeing a young quarterback handle pressure, keep the offense moving and give the Gators a chance when the game tightened late. The defense finished the job with a late fumble by Texas quarterback Arch Manning, but the bigger takeaway in Gainesville is hard to miss: there is at least a reason to believe Florida has found something it can build on. [Read more 🡒]
Florida Suddenly Has A Bigger Opportunity Than Anyone Expected
Floridas win over Texas came at exactly the right time, giving Billy Napiers team a needed jolt after a season that has already swung from a 4-0 start to back-to-back losses. The bigger picture around college football has been just as unpredictable, with results across several conferences reshuffling expectations almost every week, and Florida has managed to keep itself in the conversation despite the early turbulence.
With the bye week now in hand, the Gators are in a better spot than many projected before the season, both in the SEC race and in the overall record chase. The Texas victory did more than settle things down for a day, too, because it left Floridas preseason goals still within reach as the schedule moves into its next stretch. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Just Turned The Big 12 Race Into Something Much Bigger
A wild Saturday across college football sent shockwaves through the AP poll, and BYU was one of the biggest beneficiaries after upsetting Notre Dame to climb to No. 2. The chaos was unprecedented, with five of the top seven teams losing on the same day for the first time in AP history, and Miami surged to No. 1 after its double-overtime win against Florida State.
For Florida fans, the broader picture is just as striking because the Gators were part of a day that helped redraw the national conversation in a hurry. Ohio State held off Indiana, Tennessee beat Alabama, Florida knocked off Texas, and Auburn beat Georgia, turning what could have been a routine Saturday into a rankings reset that left the Big 12 race and the rest of the playoff picture looking far more volatile than before. [Read more 🡒]