The first AP preseason women’s college basketball poll is out, and South Carolina is sitting right where a lot of people expected: at No. 1.
Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks earned the top spot in the 2026-27 rankings, giving them the early look of the team to chase as the season nears. The poll also puts UConn at No. 2 and USC at No. 3, setting up a top-heavy opening stretch for the sport’s biggest names.
There’s no shortage of buzz around the league before the first tip. USC star JuJu Watkins is back after injury, and the freshman class has drawn plenty of attention too. North Carolina’s Kate Harpering, USC’s Saniyah Hall and South Carolina’s Jerzy Robinson are among the newcomers expected to step into the spotlight right away.
The AP poll also shows how deep the top of the sport looks across conferences. The Big Ten leads the way with nine teams in the Top 25, while the SEC has seven, including four in the Top 10. The ACC has five teams ranked, the Big 12 has three, and the Big East has one.
UCLA, the defending national champion, opens the year at No. 11. That means the Bruins will spend the early part of the season trying to prove they can repeat, with their transfers expected to have a major role in how fast they settle in.
Here’s the full preseason AP Top 25:
- South Carolina (23)
- UConn (6)
- USC (2)
- Duke
- Michigan
- Texas
- Louisville
- Vanderbilt
- LSU
- Iowa
- UCLA
- North Carolina
- Notre Dame
- Kentucky
- TCU
- Washington
- Minnesota
- Ohio State
- Ole Miss
- Maryland
- Oklahoma
- Oklahoma State
- Illinois
- West Virginia
- NC State
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UCLA Faces A Dangerous Trap Game Despite Everything In Its Favor
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Chesney pointed to the challenge of preparing for Michigan States run game and the broader work that has gone into getting his team ready for this moment, from the early phases of the year through the buildup around quarterback Ty Dieffenbach. It is the kind of late-season test that can expose whether a good team is simply in a good stretch or truly built to handle every kind of opponent, and UCLA is about to find out. [Read more 🡒]