Reigning national champion Florida is a preseason top-five team in the Associated Press poll and returns a loaded frontcourt. The Gators are looking to make it consecutive back-to-back championships, following Connecticut in 2023-24.

The NCAA will implement player availability reports for the 2026 men's and women's basketball tournaments in March.

A new trend of marquee preseason matchups has given us some data points when it comes to ranking teams before the season begins.

16. Purdue’s Braden Smith, at 6-0, is 16 inches shorter than former teammate Zach Edey, but he’s the preseason favorite to be national player of the year — same as Edey. This tall-and-short twosome have already combined to win three consecutive Big Ten player of the year awards, a streak never seen before in the history of the league.

The past seven NCAA tournament berths from the Big Sky have been claimed by Montana, Montana State and Eastern Washington. This season, the conference might have to make room for a trio of teams looking to snap some long NCAA tournament droughts: Portland State (last in 2009), Northern Colorado (2011) and Idaho (1990).

Ultimately it is the NCAA’s college basketball committee that will decide on whether, how and by how much to expand the field.

The landscape of college basketball is changing rapidly with name, image and likeness deals and the transfer portal reshaping teams yearly.

Top seeds Houston, Duke, UConn and Florida anchor our projection with Louisville and Texas Tech also poised for March redemption.

The NCAA identified the three players as forwards Jalin Billingsley and Da'Sean Nelson and guard Jalen Terry (Flint). The NCAA said not cooperating with an investigation is a violating of NCAA rules, which could result in permanent ineligibility, but none of the three has any college eligibility remaining.

NCAA betting safeguards expand with March Madness injury reports, as colleges push for stricter integrity measures and athlete protections.