hero-image

AP Poll Top 25 Men's College Basketball Rankings Prediction after Week 17

The college basketball regular season is almost finished and it's time to talk rankings. The week had a predictably large share of upsets, surprises and disappointments, meaning there could be plenty of movement in the AP's top 25 poll.

Ahead of Monday's poll release, here's an early guess at how it all might shape up:

Projected AP Top 25 Basketball Standings

Expected Ranking

After Week 17

TeamOverall RecordTotal Ranking PointsRanking from the previous week
1Houston26-315451
2Purdue26-314652
3Tennessee23-614554
4Uconn25-313403
5Arizona23-612506
6Iowa State23-611908
7Marquette22-711605
8North Carolina23-611559
9Duke23-6113010
10Creighton22-898012
11Kansas21-88807
12Illinois22-774013
13Auburn22-773011
14Baylor21-871015
15Alabama20-969014
16Kentucky21-868016
17South Carolina24-565018
18Washington State23-748019
19St. Mary's 24-737017
20San Diego State22-730020
21Gonzaga24-629023
22Utah State24-521022
23South Florida22-517525
24BYU21-8170NR
25Dayton22-67521

Upsets in the college basketball Top 25

Kansas took a pair of losses this week and slid outside the top 10 in our projected AP rankings.
Kansas took a pair of losses this week and slid outside the top 10 in our projected AP rankings.

We have Florida sliding out of the top 25 from No. 24 after a loss to South Carolina on Saturday. Dayton barely stayed in our top 25 after a loss to Loyola Chicago on Friday. St. Mary's lost to Gonzaga late Saturday, but that's a loss to a ranked team and didn't drop St. Mary's very far. Other top 25 teams that lost were Kansas (twice), Auburn, Alabama, and Marquette.

Top 10 Shakeups

The biggest news here is Kansas taking consecutive losses, which dropped them from No. 7 all the way down to No. 11. That would mark their first time outside the top 10 all year. Frankly, they probably would have stayed in the top 10, had No. 12 Creighton not bested No. 5 Marquette, which leaped the Blue Jays up the polls to No. 10.

The only other big move was Tennessee getting a bump over a UConn team that hasn't played all week, while UT bested a pair of ranked SEC foes in Auburn and Alabama. Marquette took the aforementioned loss to Creighton, but that was largely a matter of personnel, as Marquette was playing short-handed. Injuries matter, and Marquette didn't take a massive poll drop in our projections.

Potential newcomers to the top 25

It's a short list this week, but by beating Kansas and TCU, BYU joins the top 25 at No. 24. With Florida and Dayton both losing, another spot was up for grabs. BYU was technically No. 26 last week, but the teams that would have been 27th-31st all lost their respective games. So Dayton continues to stay in the poll.

Who would you rank in college basketball's top 25?

You may also like