Top 100 men's NCAA basketball players ranked going into 2025-26 - ESPN

The introduction of revenue sharing and the explosion of name, image and likeness have created a level of talent not seen in college basketball in a long time. Projected NBA first-rounders are returning to school because they can make significant money while trying to boost their draft stock; international pros are coming to the United States to play in college; and the top end of the 2024 and 2025 high school recruiting classes were loaded.

So what is the pecking order of elite players entering the 2025-26 men's college basketball campaign?

ESPN's Jeff Borzello and Myron Medcalf ranked the top 100 by creating their own lists and then deliberating a few dozen times to settle on the order below.

Heading into last season, there was a clear debate at the top between Duke's Cooper Flagg and North Carolina's RJ Davis. We opted for Flagg given his enormous ceiling and his potential to produce a Carmelo Anthony-esque national championship run. Although he fell just short of the latter, leaning toward youth was the right call.

There's a similar argument this year. Purdue's Braden Smith was a consensus first-team All-American last season and is the lone member of that group to return to college. He's also a unanimous preseason All-American leading the No. 1 team in the preseason AP Top 25. In most years, that combination would make him a shoo-in for the top spot — but there is a tremendously talented group of freshmen, led by BYU's A.J. Dybantsa, Kansas' Darryn Peterson and Duke's Cameron Boozer. Throw in the second-half form of Texas Tech forward JT Toppin, and there's a real discussion.

So who landed at No. 1? Let's start at the bottom.

Jump to:
100-76 | 75-51 | 50-26 | 25-6 | 5-1

Ohio State Buckeyes | F | Jr.

Royal edges out