More than six months ago, Walter Clayton Jr. won Most Outstanding Player honors on one of the most thrilling runs to the national championship since Kemba Walker led UConn in 2011. The Florida Gators were not viewed as a top-tier team entering last season, though, checking in at 21st in the preseason AP poll and 24th in last year's version of these tiers.

Things can change quickly in college basketball, which means, like last season's champions, some of the following teams will be in a different tier by the end of 2025-26. Still, we have ordered 80 of the sport's 365 Division I teams into tiers by their NCAA tournament chances.

Yes, there are clear championship and Final Four contenders (newsflash: Duke will be good again). But there are also teams with second-weekend potential that coul

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