{"id":193891,"date":"2026-03-16T19:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T19:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/193891\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T19:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T19:36:09","slug":"ap-top-25-poll-purdue-arkansas-rise-as-miami-ohio-falls-in-college-basketball-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/193891\/","title":{"rendered":"AP Top 25 poll: Purdue, Arkansas rise as Miami (Ohio) falls in college basketball rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The final AP Top 25 poll before the NCAA Tournament was released on Monday, and to no surprise, there was some significant movement after a busy conference championship week. The top five-ranked teams in the poll — which also happen to be the top five teams in the NCAA’s official seed list — remained unchanged.<\/p>\n

Duke<\/a>, Arizona<\/a>, Michigan<\/a>, Florida<\/a> and Houston<\/a> rounded out the top five teams in the poll. There were three newcomers in the top 10, with Purdue<\/a> being the biggest riser after upsetting Michigan in the Big Ten title game. The Boilermakers jumped 10 spots to No. 8, while St. John’s<\/a> received a slight boost by moving up three spots to No. 10 after winning the Big East title.<\/p>\n

March Madness<\/a>\u00ae is better with friends, especially when you beat them!\u00a0Get your bracket pools ready now<\/a>\u00a0and invite your friends, family and co-workers to play.<\/p>\n

Virginia<\/a> lost in the ACC title game against No. 1 Duke, but was rewarded with a one-spot boost in the rankings. The Cavaliers are ranked No. 9, ahead of St. John’s in the latest poll. Arkansas<\/a> moved up three spots to No. 14 after winning the SEC title game over Vanderbilt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

2026 NCAA Tournament bracket: Ranking every team playing in March Madness from No. 1 to 68<\/p>\n

\n Matt Norlander <\/p>\n

\"2026<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Miami (Ohio)<\/a> suffered its first loss of the season last week to UMass in the first round of the MAC Tournament. The RedHawks dropped out of the poll entirely after the loss. Miami will face SMU<\/a> in the First Four in Dayton on Wednesday, with a spot in the first round on the line.<\/p>\n

AP Top 25<\/p>\n

1. Duke (50)
2. Arizona (7)
3. Michigan
4. Florida
5. Houston
6. Iowa State<\/a>
7. UConn<\/a>
8. Purdue
9. Virginia
10. St. John’s
11. Michigan State
12. Gonzaga<\/a>
13. Illinois<\/a>
14. Arkansas
15. Nebraska<\/a>
16. Vanderbilt
17. Kansas<\/a>
18. Alabama<\/a>
19. Wisconsin<\/a>
20. Texas Tech<\/a>
21. North Carolina<\/a>
22. Saint Mary’s<\/a>
23. Louisville<\/a>
24. Tennessee<\/a>
25. Miami (FL)<\/p>\n

Others receiving votes:\u00a0Miami (Ohio) 100, BYU<\/a> 62, UCLA<\/a> 38, Utah State<\/a> 28, TCU<\/a> 17, High Point<\/a> 14, VCU<\/a> 12, Clemson<\/a> 9, Ohio State<\/a> 5, Kentucky<\/a> 4, Saint Louis<\/a> 3, Akron<\/a> 3, Santa Clara<\/a> 2, McNeese State 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The final AP Top 25 poll before the NCAA Tournament was released on Monday, and to no surprise,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3734,2531,86832,2527,2532,86833,2536,6786,8294,24887,2513,2516,2530,2535,28640,2514,2523,2525,2524,2529,2515,33737,43463,123,26238,125,124,2520,11474,4646,4676,4684,2519,73646,39193,73644,4700,2518,6794,2533,2526,2528,35241,10254,37621,4682,2521],"class_list":["post-193891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-akron-zips","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-ap-college-basketball-top-25","tag-arizona-wildcats","tag-arkansas-razorbacks","tag-associated-press-college-basketball-top-25","tag-byu-cougars","tag-clemson-tigers","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-basketball-rankings","tag-connecticut-huskies","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-florida-gators","tag-gonzaga-bulldogs","tag-high-point-panthers","tag-houston-cougars","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-iowa-state-cyclones","tag-kansas-jayhawks","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-louisville-cardinals","tag-march-madness","tag-mens-college-basketball-rankings","tag-miami","tag-miami-ohio-redhawks","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-nebraska-cornhuskers","tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-purdue-boilermakers","tag-saint-louis-billikens","tag-saint-marys-gaels","tag-santa-clara-broncos","tag-smu-mustangs","tag-st-johns-red-storm","tag-tcu-horned-frogs","tag-tennessee-volunteers","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","tag-ucla-bruins","tag-utah-state-aggies","tag-vanderbilt-commodores","tag-vcu-rams","tag-virginia-cavaliers","tag-wisconsin-badgers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193891","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=193891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}