Composite college basketball early top 25 rankings for 2023-24: Marquette, Duke UConn top early poll

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UConn is the national champion, but the Huskies are not the composite No. 1 heading into next season. 

Sporting News looked at nine leading publications to prove it. UConn had a composite ranking of No. 3 when totaling those nine sites. 

Marquette is No. 1, followed by Duke at No. 2. That might be a surprise considering the Golden Eagles and Blue Devils did not make it to the Sweet 16 in this year's tournament. Purdue checked in at No. 4, and Creighton – a third Big East team – is No. 5. It's a wide-open list with high variation after that. 

How did we come up with the Composite Top 25? Sporting News has its Way Too Early Top 25, but we also looked at ESPN, CBS, Sports Illustrated, The Athletic, Watch Stadium, USA Today, 247Sports and Fox Sports

We used an inverse scoring method (awarding 25 points to a No. 1 selection, 24 for a No. 2 selection, all the way down to one point for a No. 25 selection) to determine the highest possible score for each school.

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Composite Top 25 college basketball rankings for 2023-24

A look at a composite Way Too Early Top 25 college basketball rankings across nine major websites. Here is each school with the total points scored and their high and low ranking: 

RANK SCHOOL TOTAL HIGH LOW
1 Marquette 212 1 5
2 Duke 202 1 10
3 UConn 201 1 12
4 Purdue 191 2 15
5 Creighton 176 3 10
6 Michigan State 160 3 12
7 FAU 154 4 15
8 Miami 149 4 14
9 Kansas 148 5 13
10 Houston 136 5 18
11 Alabama 135 6 16
12 Kentucky 130 4 NR
13 Arizona 124 7 18
14 UCLA 121 2 25
15 Arkansas 113 7 19
16 Texas A&M 75 11 NR
17 Gonzaga 73 10 NR
18 Baylor 70 14 23
19 Texas 50 7 NR
20(t) San Diego State 44 14 NR
20(t) Saint Mary's 44 17 NR
22 USC 42 16 NR
23 North Carolina 41 16 NR
24 Tennessee 37 16 NR
25(t) Colorado 16 13 NR
25(t) Maryland 16 21 NR

Others receiving votes: USC 13, Virginia 13, TCU 13, Northwestern 8, Auburn 6, Xavier 4, Ohio State 4, Memphis 4, Missouri 4, Iowa State 3, Boise State 2, Mississippi State 1, Rutgers 1, St. John’s 1. 

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Composite Top 25 rankings by site

A look at a composite Way Too Early Top 25 college basketball ranking across nine major websites. Here is where each site ranked schools in their Top 25: 

SCHOOL SN ESPN CBS SI ATH FOX STAD USA 247
UConn 1 1 1 3 12 4 7 1 3
UCLA 2 25 9 17 7 13 12 17 11
Duke 3 3 8 2 10 1 2 2 1
Purdue 4 15 2 4 2 2 5 3 6
Marquette 5 2 3 1 1 3 1 4 2
Kentucky 6 4 13 8 9 17 10 11 -
Arkansas 7 12 12 19 17 9 18 18 9
Creighton 8 10 6 9 3 7 6 5 4
Alabama 9 11 7 12 16 10 13 6 15
Gonzaga 10 21 20 14 - 19 24 13 14
Michigan State 11 6 11 10 6 8 3 7 12
Arizona 12 8 14 7 8 18 15 12 16
Kansas 13 7 10 6 13 5 9 10 13
Miami 14 14 4 11 4 11 11 8 8
FAU 15 5 5 15 5 12 4 9 10
Houston 16 9 18 5 15 6 8 16 5
Baylor 17 20 17 23 14 22 20 14 17
Tennessee 18 23 16 25 19 - - - 18
Virginia 19 - - - - - - 20 -
TCU 20 - - - - - - - 19
Texas 21 18 - - 24 24 19 19 7
North Carolina 22 19 - 16 18 20 23 - 23
Northwestern 23 - - - 21 - - - -
Auburn 24 - 22 - - - - - -
Xavier 25 - 24 - - 25 - - -
Colorado - 13 - 24 - - - - 25
USC - 16 - 24 - - - - 25
Texas A&M - 17 19 13 11 15 21 15 22
San Diego State - 22 15 22 - 14 14 25 -
Saint Mary's - 24 21 18 20 23 17 21 20
Iowa State - - 25 - - - - - -
Mississippi State - - 25 - - - - - -
Maryland - - - 21 - 21 22 - 24
Ohio State  - - - - 22 - - - -
Rutgers - - - - 25 - - - -
St. John's - - - - - - 25 - -
Memphis - - - - - - - 22 -
Boise State - - - - - - - 24 -
Missouri - - - - - - - - 22
Author(s)
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Bill Bender is a national college football writer for The Sporting News.
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