{"id":152056,"date":"2026-02-11T20:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/152056\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T20:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:59:09","slug":"florida-tops-the-sec-as-week-14-ap-poll-brings-chaos-below-wruf-98-1-fm-850-am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/152056\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Tops the SEC as Week 14 AP Poll Brings Chaos Below – WRUF 98.1 FM | 850 AM"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Week 14, Florida (17-6, 8-2) is officially the highest-ranked team in the Southeastern Conference at No. 14<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil proven otherwise, I think Florida should be the top team in the SEC,\u201d said Anthony Kristensen, AP Poll voter and reporter for Whole Hog Sports. \u201cIt finally is, on the consensus and not just myself.<\/p>\n

But the Gators\u2019 tough slate is far from over as one team they are gearing up to play creeps into the top 25, and two more teams outside the SEC make big moves this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No. 25 Kentucky<\/p>\n

Sneaking in, Kentucky (17-7, 8-3) made a statement in Week 14 in a crowded and ever-changing SEC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Wildcats are not completely new to the poll, having secured their place in the early weeks and peaking at No. 9 in weeks one and two. They ultimately dropped off in Week 6 and have been left off, until now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Wildcats are re-established after a three-game win streak that included Arkansas, Oklahoma and a close 74-71 win Saturday over Tennessee. They eye a matchup with Florida this Saturday, their first of two meetings as they finish out the season at home against the Gators on March. 7.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The outcome of both contests will have a significant impact on the SEC standings for both parties as the Wildcats sit just behind Florida at No. 2 in the conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No. 12 BYU<\/p>\n

Down six places and falling to No. 12 in this week\u2019s poll, Brigham Young University (17-6, 5-3) stands with Gonzaga as the largest slide by any team after Week 14.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

So far, BYU has lost five of its last six games, all but one of those losses coming from opponents ranked in the top 15. The only unranked game ended in a 99-92 loss to Oklahoma State.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the game right there, the Oklahoma State game, where I look at it from a BYU perspective, and I think \u2018okay maybe there are some problems here,\u2019\u201d Kristensen said. \u201cBut I think a lot of it is kind of schedule-induced.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cougars have only three ranked opponents left on their schedule, with two of them being repeat contests as the end of conference play nears.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see an NCAA Tournament that doesn\u2019t include them he said,\u201d said\u00a0 Shawn O\u2019Neal, senior editor at Lindy\u2019s Sports. \u201cBut then I look at the calendar \u2026 eight more to go. If they can only win at about a 15% clip for the rest of the year, they will miss the NCAA tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

No. 3 Houston<\/p>\n

On the other side of BYU\u2019s loss and up five spots and tying for the biggest jump of the week, the Cougars (21-2, 9-1) are officially a top-three team in college basketball.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s who they are,\u201d O\u2019Neal said about Houston\u2019s 77-66 win over BYU on Saturday on the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal said he sees Houston as a team that is able to win six games in a row and is a true contender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kristensen had similar thoughts on the Cougars. He said this season, Houston\u2019s offense is rated higher than its defense, which has been uncommon for the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow hard they play, it\u2019s kind of remarkable to watch,\u201d Kristensen said. \u201cThe thing with Houston this year as well is that its offense is more polished than it has been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Category: College Basketball<\/a>, Gators Men’s Basketball<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Week 14, Florida (17-6, 8-2) is officially the highest-ranked team in the Southeastern Conference at No. 14.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12283,22036,37534,28,23423,30,29,31012,73373,49482,52371,23468,62587],"class_list":{"0":"post-152056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-ap-poll","9":"tag-ap-top-25","10":"tag-byu-basketball","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-basketball","13":"tag-florida-headlines","14":"tag-florida-news","15":"tag-gators-basketball","16":"tag-houston-basketball","17":"tag-kentucky-basketball","18":"tag-mens-basketball","19":"tag-sec-basketball","20":"tag-top-25-mens-basketball"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}