The college basketball preseason is the best time of year. Nobody’s lost a game yet, so everybody’s got a good team and is filled with hope on the eve of the 2025-26 campaign.
With the season just a fortnight away, the time has come to discuss the somewhat meaningless but nevertheless fun preseason rankings conglomerate.
While most polls are based around returning players, freshmen rankings, and projected transfer impacts, these rankings are largely based on data no one has yet for these teams. Sure, some of these numbers carry over from year to year, but player growth, coaching changes, injuries, skill fits, off-court storylines and so much more will impact how a team actually comes together on the court.