AP Poll and Coaches Poll – Who is the Best College Basketball Team?

As the 2024 college basketball season continues and Selection Sunday is less than two months away, we’ll start to hear all sorts of speculation about which teams are the best in the country. The most popular ranking systems are the AP and Coaches polls, both released on Mondays during the season.

Both of these rankings are based on the opinions of members of the media, sportswriters and broadcasters from around the nation. They are typically asked to rank the Top 25 teams each week and then are given points based on their ranking. The team with the most points is then ranked number one. The AP poll was started in 1949 and is the oldest of all the rankings still in use today.

With a hectic week in store for the AP Top 25, voters will have to make some difficult decisions when they release their new rankings Monday morning. With 17 ranked teams in the top-25 losing last week, there is bound to be some reshuffling in the rankings.

The biggest winner this week was Marquette, who jumped up three spots to No. 4. The Golden Eagles benefited from Kansas, North Carolina and Tennessee all taking losses.