AP Top 25 Mens Basketball: The Complete Fan Guide

Few traditions in college sports carry the prestige, debate, and weekly drama of the Associated Press college basketball rankings. For more than seven decades, the AP Top 25 mens basketball poll has served as the definitive cultural barometer for the sport, shaping national narratives, setting the stakes for marquee matchups, and sparking intense debates across campuses nationwide.

While algorithmic metrics like the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) and KenPom dictate official tournament selection and seeding, the AP Poll remains the heartbeat of fan engagement. Here is a comprehensive look at how the poll works, how voters assemble their ballots, and how it fits into the broader college basketball landscape.

Understanding the AP Top 25 Mens Basketball Poll

The Associated Press men’s basketball poll dates back to January 1949, when Saint Louis University earned the inaugural No. 1 ranking. Originally a top-20 list, the poll expanded to 25 teams ahead of the 1989–90 season to account for the growing depth of Division I basketball.

Unlike automated computer algorithms, the AP poll is strictly a human-generated ranking. It relies on a carefully selected panel of roughly 60 to 65 sports journalists and broadcasters across the United States. These voters cover college basketball at regional and national outlets, ensuring geographic diversity so that no single conference or region dominates the perspective.

The Borda Count Scoring System

The ranking is calculated using a standard Borda count point system based on each individual voter's submitted top 25 ballot:

• A team ranked No. 1 receives 25 points.
• A team ranked No. 2 receives 24 points.
• A team ranked No. 25 receives 1 point.

The AP aggregates every voter’s ballot, sums the points, and orders the top 25 teams accordingly. Teams outside the top 25 that receive at least one vote are designated as "Others Receiving Votes" (often abbreviated as RV), providing a clear look at which programs are knocking on the door of the national rankings.

Release Schedule and Key Milestones

Consistency is key to the poll's visibility. Throughout the regular season, the AP releases its updated rankings every Monday at 12:00 PM Eastern Time. This schedule gives voters time to process Sunday afternoon games before finalizing their ballots early Monday morning.

The polling calendar follows four distinct phases during the season:

1. The Preseason Poll: Released in mid-to-late October, this sets the baseline expectations based on returning talent, transfer portal additions, and incoming recruiting classes.
2. Non-Conference Play (November–December): Characterized by high volatility as neutral-site tournaments and cross-conference showcase games test untested rosters.
3. Conference Play (January–February): Rankings tend to stabilize as familiar conference rivals play home-and-away series, revealing true team consistency.
4. The Final Poll: Released in mid-March just before the NCAA Tournament begins. The AP does not conduct a post-tournament poll; its final ranking permanently reflects regular-season and conference tournament achievements.

How Voters Evaluate Teams

AP voters are given broad editorial freedom. The Associated Press provides general ethical guidelines—such as watching as many games as possible and avoiding home-team favoritism—but voters develop their own evaluation frameworks. Most modern voters weigh a blend of traditional outcomes and analytical data:

Quality of Wins vs. Strength of Schedule

A pristine 12-0 record built against low-major opponents rarely impresses voters as much as a 9-3 record forged against top-tier competition. Voters examine where games are played; a road victory at a hostile venue carries far more weight than a comfortable home win against an outmatched opponent.

Analytical Backing

While the AP poll is subjective, modern voters increasingly rely on advanced analytics to validate what they see on the court. Metrics like adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency, turnover margin, and pace of play often sway voters when comparing two teams with identical win-loss records.

Injuries and Context

Human voters can apply context that raw algorithms sometimes miss. If a top contender loses two straight games while their All-American point guard is sidelined with an ankle sprain, voters often penalize the team less severely than a computer model might, expecting a return to form once the roster is whole.

AP Poll vs. NCAA NET: What Is the Difference?

A common misconception among casual fans is that the AP Top 25 dictates seeding in the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. In reality, the NCAA Men's Basketball Selection Committee does not use the AP poll as an official selection criterion.

Instead, the committee relies heavily on the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), introduced in 2018 to replace the old RPI formula. The NET breaks games down into four quadrants based on opponent quality and game location (Quad 1 being the most difficult, Quad 4 the easiest).

Feature	AP Top 25 Poll	NCAA NET Rankings
Type	Human media poll	Algorithmic sorting tool
Primary Purpose	Media storytelling & fan tracking	Tournament selection & seeding
Update Frequency	Weekly (Mondays)	Daily
Scope	Ranks top 25 teams	Ranks all 360+ Division I teams

Even though the AP poll does not directly impact the bracket, it exerts strong informal influence. A high AP ranking builds program momentum, drives national television viewership, elevates player awards profiles, and puts psychological pressure on selection committee members when evaluating bubble teams.

Common Critiques and Poll Inertia

Despite its popularity, the AP poll faces regular criticism from analysts and fans. The most persistent issue is poll inertia. If a team begins the season ranked No. 3 and continues to win—even unimpressively against weak opposition—voters are traditionally reluctant to drop them. Conversely, an unranked team on a dominant winning streak may take weeks to climb past underperforming traditional powerhouses simply because they started with zero points.

Another debate centers on preseason bias. Early-season rankings are inherently speculative, based on paper potential rather than on-court evidence. Yet, because voters rarely demote winning teams, preseason errors can linger well into January, unfairly rewarding some teams with "ranked win" credits that look far less impressive in hindsight.

Historical Dominance in the AP Rankings

Blue-blood programs have historically dominated the top tier of the AP rankings. Programs like Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, and UCLA hold the records for the most total weeks spent at No. 1 and the longest streaks ranked inside the top 25.

However, modern college basketball—driven by the transfer portal, name, image, and likeness (NIL) opportunities, and parity across conferences—has made the rankings more fluid than ever. Mid-major powers and ascending high-major programs routinely crash the top 10, proving that modern voters are increasingly willing to reward execution over brand name.

The Takeaway

The AP Top 25 is not a perfect metric, nor is it intended to replace the rigorous quadrant math used on Selection Sunday. Its value lies in its role as a weekly chronicle of college basketball’s regular season. By capturing the emotional highs, sudden upsets, and emerging contenders in real time, the poll remains essential reading for anyone following the road to the Final Four.