AP Poll Top 25 Men's College Basketball Rankings Predictions

As the college basketball regular season has crept to an end, it's time for a guess as to what the March 10th AP poll rankings might reveal. Instead of waiting for the poll, let's take an easy guess as to what teams might be on the move up or down in the coming AP poll.

Projected AP Top 25 College Basketball Rankings

With a pair of losses, Bruce Pearl and Auburn will slide down from the No.1 spot in the nation. (Photo Credit: IMAGN)

First, to start, here's last week's poll.

RANK	TEAM (First Place Votes)	RECORD	POINTS	PREVIOUS RANK
1	Auburn (61)	27-2	1525	1
2	Duke	26-3	1458	2
3	Houston	25-4	1396	4
4	Tennessee	24-5	1326	5
5	Florida	25-4	1247	3
6	St. John's	26-4	1179	7
7	Alabama	23-6	1176	6
8	Michigan State	24-5	1165	8
9	Texas Tech	22-7	947	10
10	Iowa State	22-7	918	9
11	Clemson	24-5	905	13
12	Wisconsin	22-7	815	11
13	Maryland	22-7	628	16
14	Louisville	23-6	606	19
15	Missouri	21-8	603	14
16	Memphis	24-5	560	18
17	Michigan	22-7	494	15
18	Purdue	20-9	454	20
19	Kentucky	19-10	417	17
20	Marquette	22-7	409	21
21	Saint Mary's	27-4	399	23
22	Texas A&M	20-9	364	12
23	BYU	21-8	287	25
24	Arizona	19-10	162	22
25	Mississippi State	20-9	87	24

And now, our best early guess about what might change.

Teams heading out of the top 25?

Arizona has a good chance to slide out of the top 25. The Wildcats had a 1-1 weak, holding off in-state foe Arizona State but losing a fairly winnable game against an unranked Kansas team. Arizona didn't fall too far from 24th and is probably out of the top 25.

Mississippi State is almost certainly moving out of the top 25. The Bulldogs barely tucked into the No. 25 spot a week ago Since then, they lost two games. Granted, it took overtime for Texas to outlast them and Arkansas defeated MSU by a single point. Still, an 0-2 week says goodbye to the top 25 for Mississippi State.

Less certain but possible as a non-top 25 team now is Marquette. The Golden Eagles were at No. 20 but lost both their games in the week, first to unranked UConn and then in overtime to No. 6 St. John's. Still, between their relatively high rank and the solid nature of the teams that beat them, there's a good chance Marquette doesn't fall out of the top 25... but it could.

Top 10 shakeups

Start at the top. Duke will move up to No. 1 and Auburn will move down. The Tigers had a 0-2 week, losing to Texas A&M and Alabama. It wouldn't be shocking if Auburn fell below No. 2.

Look for Florida and Tennessee to flip. The Vols were 4th, while the Gators were 5th. But UT lost to Ole Miss and Florida had an impressive 2-0 week. That's a certain move.

St. John's could move up a bit off a big week, while Iowa State will fall out of the Top 10 and will likely be replaced by either Maryland or Clemson.

New Top 25 teams?

The two most obvious candidates to leap are Illinois and Oregon. Illinois was already among the "receiving votes" crowd and followed a Sunday win at Michigan by taking down Purdue on Friday. Two straight wins over ranked teams should jump the Illini.

Oregon was on the cusp of the top 25 and a win over Indiana certainly won't hurt the Ducks' situation. Both of those teams are probably "moving on up."

What do you think of our AP Poll top 25 projections? Who's up and down this week? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments section!