Florida Is Preseason No. 1 — Because in 2026, Continuity Is the New Superpower
The Gators return six of their top seven scorers from an SEC-winning No. 1 seed. In the portal era, that's not depth — that's a cheat code.
August 27, 2026 at 4:20 AM EDT
1 min read
CBS Sports' preseason Top 25 And 1 has Florida at No. 1 for 2026-27, ahead of Duke, Michigan and Illinois — and the reasoning is the story. The Gators return six of their top seven scorers — Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, Boogie Fland, Rueben Chinyelu, Urban Klavzar and Isaiah Brown — from a team that won the SEC by three games and earned a No. 1 seed.
Continuity is the whole ballgame now
In the transfer-portal era, almost nobody returns a core. Rosters turn over 40, 50, 60 percent in a summer; chemistry gets rebuilt from scratch every October. A team that keeps six of seven scorers isn't just returning talent — it's returning the thing everyone else has to spend November and December building. That's why continuity has become the single most predictive preseason signal in the sport, and why Florida sits on top despite blue-blood brands below it.
The chasing pack
Duke at 2 on talent, Michigan and Illinois rounding the top four, Michigan State at 7 — the Big Ten claims three of the top ten. And keep an eye on Gonzaga at 11, a direct beneficiary of the fifth-year eligibility chaos that's reshaping rosters in real time.
The betting lens
Preseason No. 1s carry inflated futures prices all season — the ranking IS the tax. The historical value play is the continuity team ranked 8-15 that the market prices on brand rather than returning production. This year the sharp question isn't whether Florida is good. It's who else kept their core and hasn't been repriced for it yet.