Auburn is in line to ascend to No. 1 in the AP poll Monday on the heels of Tennessee’s first loss of the season
• 6 min read
There will be a new No. 1 in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll Monday for the first time in six weeks after Tennessee, No. 1 in the rankings since Dec. 9, suffered its first loss. The Vols crashed and burned at Florida, where the Gators handed them a 73-43 serving of humble pie. The loss — and another perfect week from Auburn — all but guarantees the Tigers will supplant their SEC foe at the top of the poll.
It will mark the first time since the 2021-22 season that Auburn is ranked No. 1 in the poll, and the fourth time in school history it will have summited the rankings. The other three previous instances all came during the 2021-22 season from Weeks 12-14 before finishing at No. 8.
How much voters punish Tennessee for its loss will be of great interest to the other teams in the rankings that have fought for weeks to move up the board. An ugly loss might hurt the Vols, but their résumé — No. 3 in defense, top-10 in scoring margin and four Quad 1 wins — stacks up with just about every other team outside Auburn.
Ahead of Monday’s rankings, I crawled into the minds of AP voters to see how they might react to all the latest results: a Tennessee loss, a three-loss week for OU, a 1-1 week for Kentucky. My projected Top 25 is below.
Projected to drop out: Oklahoma, UCLA, West Virginia
