Preseason men's Top 25: Far and away

Oct 22, 2025
Trinity (Conn.) returns four starters and nine players who averaged double-digit minutes, including Jared Berry, who scored 9.3 points per game last season.
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It used to be that the D3hoops.com men's basketball preseason Top 25 loved a defending national champion. It's been a few years since the defending champ was such an overwhelming favorite, but that's the case here in 2025-26.


D3sports.com conversation with Mike McGrath

D3sports.com conversation with Jeff Gard

Defending men's basketball national champion Trinity (Conn.) received 23 of 25 first-place votes and has a commanding lead over No. 2 Randolph-Macon, which a margin of 86 poll points entering the season. That's the largest gap since 2015-16, when Augustana was the preseason No. 1.

Part of the reason for the big gap is that last year's runner-up, New York University, lost ... almost everything. The Violets lost nearly 93% of their scoring from last season, and their head coach left for a job in Division I. NYU is not in the preseason poll, and is the first team in the history of our poll (starting in 1999-2000) to not make the preseason Top 25 after finishing the previous year as the national runner-up. Previously, Hampden-Sydney (2024-25), Elmhurst (2022-23) and Rochester (2005-06) have been the lowest-ranked teams the following preseason, all ranked at No. 23.

When you look at the poll, look for clusters of teams: After Trinity, Randolph-Macon, Emory and Tufts are three teams within 38 points of each other. UW-La Crosse, Carthage and Christopher Newport are three teams within four points. Illinois Wesleyan, Hampden-Sydney and UW-Platteville are three teams within 14 points.

Check out the full poll at the link below.

2025-26 men's basketball preseason D3hoops.com Top 25

The first regular-season poll is slated for release on Monday, Nov. 24.

Check out more preview coverage with our D3sports.com conversations below, including three conversations with men's basketball coaches who have teams in our preseason Top 25.

More 2025-26 D3sports.com Conversations