Few things will always be true in the college basketball realm. The first is to expect the unexpected when it comes to results. The second is that no matter how much thought goes into it the top 25 poll will always be wrong in the eyes of many who watch college basketball. That is clearly an opinion-based take, but it does hold some merit, given how the selection of the teams is done.
The AP poll is the best arbitrary college basketball ranking system that we have. There is Kenpom which is done using computers and efficiency. Then there is Trank which is done with computers and efficiency rankings as well. ESPN has BPI which is their own power rankings and then there is the NET rankings, which I already touched on earlier this month. Those rankings listed above are all things that are used on team sheets when it comes time to select the NCAA tournament field. Do you know what isn’t on the team sheets? The AP poll!
Why is the AP poll not on team sheets? Well, there is no scientific formula or rating system to it. It is done by a bunch of writers who rank the teams based on the eye test and their results from the previous week. There are times when teams get ranked by the name on their jersey and their history instead of how they perform. Okay, that probably isn’t true, but it does seem that way. There have been times when it doesn’t seem that the AP poll fully captures the best teams in the country. This year is different, though; the AP poll has been a very accurate representation of where teams should be in the hierarchy of the rankings.
The one noticeable thing about the AP poll this year, and about college basketball in general, is the omission of many of the poll mainstays over the last 20 years. There are a lot of reasons for this but the main one is that most of these teams are not any good this year and have not been for a while. Even without the poll mainstays and the perennial powers being down it has still been a tremendous college basketball season.
This has been a year of firsts so far. Auburn has been ranked No. 1 for most of the year. It is the first time the Tigers have ever been ranked No. 1 in their history, and they also happen to have one of the best teams ever per metrics and analytics. Iowa State had the highest ranking and best start in school history, and Alabama had the highest preseason ranking in school history. Even with the year of firsts, it still looks strange not seeing some of the teams we have grown accustomed to seeing every year.
UConn Huskies
The Huskies were the most glaring omission in the most recent AP Poll. The two-time defending champions were ranked in the AP poll for 51 straight weeks. It had been since November of 2022 that UConn was not ranked in an AP poll. The Huskies were ranked in every poll this season until the latest one that came out on Monday. The St. John’s loss is the one that knocked UConn out of the rankings.
Never fear though as the Huskies are likely going to be ranked again when the polls come out on Monday. They just beat a ranked team on the road and have done enough to keep their names in the conversation. It is still strange not seeing their name in the best 25 teams in the country especially after the last two seasons.
Louisville Cardinals
All Louisville fans can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the Kenny Payne era is far behind them already and new head coach Pat Kelsey is starting to get the Cardinals back to the Louisville we all know. The Cardinals were ranked earlier this year and it was the first time the Cardinals had been ranked since 2021. That was the Kenny Payne era when the Cardinals were going through constant turmoil. Coach Kelsey is working on getting this program back to where it belongs. Even with the down years, the Cardinals still had no problem recruiting talented players and will always have name recognition.
Why is Louisville included here? Well under Rick Pitino the Cardinals were ranked in almost every poll. They were ranked in every poll from 2011-2015. That is a total of 60 straight weeks. It was strange seeing the program struggle under Kenny Payne and was even weirder seeing Louisville not be ranked for three straight seasons. Louisville is currently still receiving votes in this week's AP poll and will likely be in the poll before the season ends again.
Gonzaga Bulldogs
This one is extremely surprising and something I didn’t think was possible under current head coach Mark Few. The Bulldogs dropped out of the polls in early January after back to back losses to Oregon State and Santa Clara. It has been a strange year for the Gonzaga program as they are two games back on Saint Mary’s, which isn’t all that strange, but Gonzaga is in third place because San Francisco is tied with them in the loss column but has played one extra game and the Dons are one game up in the win column.
Gonzaga has not looked right all year, and some suggest they may have some chemistry problems that would be a first for the program under Mark Few. When Gonzaga left the poll in January, it ended a 143 consecutive week stretch of being ranked in the AP poll. The stretch went from 2017 to 2025. That is impressive; now, hopefully, the Bulldogs won’t end their sweet 16 appearances streak.
UCLA Bruins
PSA for all of the younger fans: there is something that you should know before we get into this. UCLA is the most historic program in the country and should be what every program strives to be. They have the most titles and were ranked for 221 weeks total from 1967-1980. Every week consecutively. The Bruins program is the bluest of blue bloods and they are always a threat to be good. UCLA has been ranked a lot recently under head coach Mick Cronin and were earlier this year.
UCLA was still receiving votes in this weeks AP Poll and probably should have been ranked given their seven-game winning streak and who they beat during that time. It does feel better when the Bruins are ranked. Love or hate the program, they have earned everyone’s respect and will likely find themselves in the rankings every year.
North Carolina Tar Heels
The fact that North Carolina isn’t a good program this season has been talked about ad-naseum, and as we have said, when programs have as much success as North Carolina does, and they don’t make the NCAA tournament, people unfortunately lose jobs. The Tar Heels are the one team that we have mentioned that is nowhere near the rankings this season. The other teams mentioned are at least all still receiving votes.
The Tar Heels opened the season ranked in the top 10, and it was all downhill from there. They don’t have any signature wins and have not been close to the rankings since Christmas. It is quite a step back from last season when the Tar Heels were ranked all year, and it is the second-longest rankings drought for North Carolina under head coach Hubert Davis. For reference, the Tar Heels have been ranked for over 100 consecutive weeks multiple times.
Syracuse Orange
The Orange were a dominant program in the early 80’s all the way through the 2010’s they were in the polls almost every week with the peak coming from 1984-1991 for 120 straight weeks and then again in 2010-2015 for 97 straight weeks. The one constant for Syracuse at that time was head coach Jim Boeheim. Coach Boeheim retired at the end of the 2022-2023 season, and Orange has not been ranked since then. The last time the Orange were in the AP poll was the week of December 10, 2018.
So then if it has been 6 years for Syracuse then why are we talking about them on this list? Syracuse is still one of the historic programs in the country that is struggling after losing a legendary coach. Their name holds weight, and when you become a mainstay in the poll, it is strange not seeing them in it anymore. The Orange currently have a losing record and will not be ranked this year.
The purpose of this exercise was not to say that the AP Poll voters got this wrong. It was to point out that it is a strange time not seeing these great and consistent programs not be ranked at the same time. Sure, it is reasonable to expect one or two of them not to be ranked in a week, but when all of them are unranked at the same time, it is an anomaly. One that we likely won’t see again for a long time. It is likely that Louisville and UConn will be ranked again next week.