The 2025-26 college basketball season is almost here, and expectations remain high for Duke basketball.
The Blue Devils enter the season ranked No. 6 in the Associated Press Top 25 Men’s College Basketball Poll, which was released on Monday, Oct. 13. Above Duke is No. 1 Purdue, No. 2 Houston, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 UConn and No. 5 St. John’s.
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The Blue Devils are set to face as many as nine AP Top 25 teams during the 2025-26 season: No. 3 Florida, No. 7 Michigan, No. 10 Texas Tech, No. 11 Louisville, No. 14 Arkansas, No. 18 Tennessee (exhibition), No. 19 Kansas, No. 22 Michigan State and No. 25 North Carolina.
In the ESPN preseason rankings released on Tuesday, Oct. 7, Duke had its lowest ranking at No. 10. The preseason KenPom rankings, unveiled on Sunday, Oct. 12, had Duke listed at No. 7.
Duke returns six members from its 35-4 season where it won both the ACC regular season and tournament titles, making its 18th appearance in the NCAA Final Four. It brought in the nation’s top-rated recruiting class for the second-straight season along with two transfer portal additions.
Duke will play exhibitions vs. UCF (Oct. 21) and at Tennessee (Oct. 26) before officially starting its season on Nov. 4 against Texas at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte. It opens play at Cameron Indoor Stadium against Western Carolina on Saturday, Nov. 8.
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Anna Snyder covers Duke for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at asnyder@gannett.com or follow her @annaesnydr on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Duke basketball preseason ranking in AP poll, other preseason polls
