Kentucky-Louisville will be battle of highly ranked teams. Here’s the new Top 25
The Kentucky-Louisville college basketball rivalry renews Tuesday night in the Yum Center, and both teams will be highly ranked for the occasion.
On Monday afternoon, the first Associated Press Top 25 poll of the 2025-26 regular season was released, with the Wildcats at No. 9 and the Cardinals at No. 12. Kentucky stayed in the same position as the preseason AP poll, while Louisville dropped one spot.
Both teams earned blowout victories over mid-major opponents in the first week of the season. UK defeated Nicholls 77-51 and Valparaiso 107-59 in its first two home games last week. U of L also played two games on its home court, beating South Carolina State 104-45 in the opener before a 106-70 victory over Jackson State on Thursday night.
Monday’s poll was also the first rankings update since the exhibition season, which was eventful for both the Cats and the Cards.
Kentucky beat preseason No. 1 Purdue in Rupp Arena, then suffered a surprise loss to the Georgetown Hoyas. U of L dropped its exhibition opener at home to Kansas — ranked 19th in the preseason AP poll — before a 99-76 victory over Bucknell in its preseason finale.
This will be the first time that U of L is ranked for this rivalry game since the 2019-20 season, when the No. 19 Wildcats beat the No. 3 Cards 78-70 in overtime in Rupp Arena. Kentucky has won 14 of the past 17 meetings with Louisville, dating back to John Calipari’s first season as UK’s head coach.
Mark Pope’s Cats defeated fellow first-year head coach Pat Kelsey’s Cards 93-85 in last season’s meeting in Rupp Arena.
New AP Top 25 college basketball rankings
Purdue, which received 35 of 61 first-place votes in the preseason AP Top 25 poll, lost its spot at the top of the rankings after that exhibition loss to Kentucky, dropping to No. 2 in the first update of the regular season.
Houston is the new No. 1 team in the country, slightly edging the Boilermakers for the top spot. Purdue still has the most first-place votes — with 36 of 61 — but the Cougars won the overall points battle despite garnering only 18 first-place votes.
Those two teams were followed by No. 3 UConn, No. 4 Duke and No. 5 Arizona. The rest of the top 10 includes No. 6 Michigan, No. 7 BYU, No. 8 Alabama, No. 9 Kentucky and No. 10 Florida.
Four teams from the first batch of Top 25 rankings lost last week, but all of them — No. 3 Florida, No. 5 St. John’s, No. 14 Arkansas and No. 19 Kansas — fell to ranked opponents.
Arizona, which was ranked No. 13 last week, toppled the defending national champion Gators in Las Vegas and moved up eight spots, but Alabama — 15th in the preseason poll — might have had the best week one victory. Nate Oats’ team beat Rick Pitino’s Red Storm in Madison Square Garden on Saturday.
The rest of the AP Top 25 features No. 11 Texas Tech, No. 12 Louisville, No. 13 St. John’s, No. 14 Illinois, No. 15 UCLA, No. 16 Iowa State, No. 17 Michigan State, No. 18 North Carolina, No. 19 Gonzaga, No. 20 Tennessee, No. 21 Arkansas, No. 22 Auburn, No. 23 Creighton, No. 24 Wisconsin and No. 25 Kansas.
The Spartans were No. 22 in the preseason poll, moving up five spots after a win over Arkansas on Saturday night. UK will play Michigan State in the Champions Classic on Nov. 18.
North Carolina, which was 25th in the preseason poll, jumped seven spots after its win over Kansas last week. Kentucky will host the Tar Heels in the ACC/SEC Challenge on Dec. 2.
Georgetown had no votes in the preseason AP poll and picked up just one 25th-place vote in Monday’s update. After their exhibition upset of Kentucky two weeks ago, the Hoyas opened the regular season with an 87-70 win over Morgan State before a 70-60 victory at Maryland.
This story was originally published November 10, 2025 at 1:15 PM.
