The Florida Gators, who won their first two games of the season, remain No. 2 in ESPN's Basketball Power Index with a rating of 22.0 after the opening week of the 2026-27 campaign. That puts them 2.4 points behind the top-ranked Duke Blue Devils, who also prevailed in their initial pair of regular-season matchups.

Florida now has an offensive rating of 11.4 — down 0.4 points from the previous update — which ranks fourth behind Illinois (12.4), Duke (11.8) and Texas (11.5), and a defensive rating of 10.6 — up 0.9 points — which is second only to the Blue Devils' 12.6 score. The Gators have a projected overall record of 25.4-4.6 — an increase of 0.5 wins — and a conference tally of 14.3-3.7 — up 0.2 wins — with a 64.4% chance of winning an SEC title — up 0.8% — and the 19th-toughest strength of schedule — down from ninth-hardest.

“The College Basketball Power Index (BPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward,” ESPN explains. “BPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Strength of Record (SOR) is a measure of team accomplishment based on how difficult a team’s W-L record is to achieve. Game predictions account for opponent strength, pace of play, site, travel distance, day’s rest and altitude, and are used to simulate the season 10,000 times to produce season projections.”

The Orange and Blue are expected to remain the No. 1 team in both the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll and AP Top 25 after the first week of play and are still ranked second in the Pomeroy College Basketball Rankings with a plus-34.00 net rating — 0.83 points short of Duke's plus-34.83.

This week, Florida travels to Tallahassee for its only true road game before the SEC schedule, facing FSU on Tuesday night, then returns home on Friday to host Merrimack.

Basketball Power Index top 25 after Week 1

  1. Duke Blue Devils
  2. Florida Gators
  3. Illinois Fighting Illini
  4. Texas Longhorns
  5. Tennessee Volunteers
  6. UConn Huskies
  7. Iowa State Cyclones
  8. Houston Cougars
  9. Michigan State Spartans
  10. Kansas Jayhawks
  11. UCLA Bruins
  12. Gonzaga Bulldogs
  13. Texas Tech Red Raiders
  14. Arizona Wildcats
  15. Miami Hurricanes
  16. Marquette Golden Eagles
  17. Vanderbilt Commodores
  18. Nebraska Cornhuskers
  19. Louisville Cardinals
  20. BYU Cougars
  21. Auburn Tigers
  22. Alabama Crimson Tide
  23. Virginia Cavaliers
  24. TCU Horned Frogs
  25. Iowa Hawkeyes

Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Where Florida ranks in Basketball Power Index after season's first week

Source: Yahoo Sports