UConn, Houston top the Hotline’s ridiculously early Top 25 for the 2025-26 season

Projecting success seven months before the start of the regular season was difficult enough before the transfer portal and immediate eligibility for multi-time transfers collided last spring. In the current environment, accuracy is effectively impossible.

Which is precisely why the Hotline finds the subject endlessly fascinating.

That said, we’ll update the rankings after the spring transfer window and NBA Draft decisions. By then, in theory, a morsel of clarity will have emerged.