The Florida Gators just edged out the Duke Blue Devils to be named the preseason No. 1 team in the AP Top 25.

Florida received 47 first place votes compared to Duke's 10, but the Gators finished with 1,461 points compared to Duke's 1,411.

Illinois put up a solid fight with 1,342 points, though they only received two first place votes.

Officially, those were the only three teams to receive first place votes when the preseason poll dropped on Monday, Oct. 19.

Coming into the year No. 1 shows that there are a ton of expectations for this Gators team, but obviously, the results have to be there.

Head coach Todd Golden would love to win another National Championship, but that's much easier said than done with teams like the Blue Devils and Fighting Illini right behind them.

After a shocking Round of 32 exit against the Iowa Hawkeyes last year, Florida should be more motivated than ever to get back to the Final Four.

Florida finished the 2025-26 season with a 27-8 record, and while they weren't perfect, they still did enough to earn a No. 1 seed in the tournament.

The Gators season kicks off on Monday, Nov. 2 against No. 14 Miami. That will be a neutral site game in Tampa, FL, and is set to tipoff at 6:00 p.m. EST on ESPN2.

Tuesday, Dec. 1 will put the preseason No. 1 and No. 2 teams against one another as Florida hosts Duke as part of the ACC vs. SEC Challenge.

There's arguably no bigger regular season game in all of college basketball, and the Blue Devils are set to come to town in Florida's fourth true home game of the season.

There's a chance those teams aren't ranked No. 1 or No. 2 by the time the first of December comes around knowing they each have a few marquee opponents on the horizon.

Miami is Florida's biggest game before Duke, and then the Blue Devils are set to take on No. 6 Michigan State, No.  3 Illinois and No. 4 UConn.

Clearly, Duke has a tougher non-conference schedule, but that doesn't change the fact that Florida was ranked ahead of them in the preseason poll.

Other notable ranked teams on Florida's schedule include: No. 7 Texas, No. 24 Vanderbilt, No. 20 Alabama, No. 8 Tennessee, No. 12 Arkansas, and No. 23 Kentucky.