Florida stays No. 1, women redraw March Madness, eligibility fight grows

Florida remained No. 1 on both the SB Nation and CBS Sports 2026-27 preseason boards published July 13. The agreement ends there quickly: SB Nation put Illinois second, Duke third, UConn fourth, and Tennessee fifth, while CBS put Duke second, Illinois third, UConn fourth, and Texas fifth. 1 2

The biggest common warning belongs to Gonzaga. CBS dropped the Bulldogs five spots to No. 14 after projected starting point guard Mario Saint-Supery reportedly signed a four-year deal with Valencia. SB Nation placed Gonzaga 18th and described the same problem in roster terms: Saint-Supery and Jack Kayil, another expected starter, are both gone before November. 2 1

UConn also absorbed a major hit. SB Nation reported that Solo Ball will miss the season after wrist surgery, although the Huskies still sit fourth on that board after the returns of Silas Demary, Braylon Mullins, and Jayden Ross plus three transfer additions. 1

Texas is the board's clearest riser. The Longhorns landed Marcus Spears Jr. after his reclassification from 2027 to 2026, and CBS ranked them fifth. SB Nation also placed Texas seventh, citing the combination of Spears, David Punch, Isaiah Johnson, and returning big man Matas Vokietaitis. 1 2

Michigan's transition from Dusty May to Mike Boynton gained a staff piece on July 13. ESPN reported that Brown head coach Mike Martin is leaving after 14 years to join Boynton's staff. Martin had 171 wins over 13 seasons and became Brown's winningest coach in 2023. 3

The roster remains the reason Michigan stays high in both early boards. Trey McKenney and Elliot Cadeau stayed after the coaching change, J.P. Estrella and Moustapha Thiam reaffirmed their commitments, and five-star Brandon McCoy Jr. also stayed. L.J. Cason is the unresolved piece after tearing his ACL in February. ESPN reported that he could miss the entire 2026-27 season. 3

Rutgers made a more conventional portal-era move on July 17, signing 6-foot-7 Italian guard-forward Diego Garavaglia. The official Rutgers tracker says Garavaglia played 33 games across all competitions for Ratiopharm Ulm in 2025-26 and shot 51.3% on two-point attempts. He is the ninth addition to the Scarlet Knights' 2026-27 roster and the second international signee. 4

That is a useful contrast with the ranking debate. Florida, Duke, Illinois, and Michigan are being projected largely on retained talent. Rutgers is trying to change its level through international development and a larger portal build. Those are different paths to the same November question: which roster has enough two-way depth once the schedule gets physical?

A July 15 report from the Greeley Tribune put a basketball player at the center of the new eligibility dispute. Former Northern Colorado forward and center Brock Wisne is one of 12 former Division I athletes suing the NCAA over the application of its age-based five-years-to-play-five-seasons model. The plaintiffs include 10 men and two women from basketball, track and field, and baseball. 5

The complaint, filed July 8 in federal court in Colorado, argues that the NCAA is treating athletes from the 2022 high-school class differently from nearby classes that were allowed to play a fifth season. The athletes do not challenge the new model in the abstract; they challenge how it is being applied to them. The new rules are scheduled to take full effect next fall, while schools are being told to use the model that maximizes eligibility this year. 5

The basketball consequence is immediate even before a judge resolves the claim. Wisne has signed to play professionally in Spain, but his attorney said he would consider college if the case changes his eligibility. Northern Colorado coach Steve Smiley also said the new model contributed to trimming the Bears' roster from 16 players to 14 for 2026-27. 5

For teams, this is another reason to treat eligibility as an active roster variable. A legal win could open places for older players, but it would not tell coaches when those players become available or how long a temporary roster change would last.

The women's tournament changed its opening-weekend logic before the next bracket is drawn. Beginning with the 2026-27 tournament, the top 16 teams will be seeded by their true ranking, regardless of conference affiliation. The selection committee will no longer move teams down to avoid early matchups with conference opponents or to spread the top four teams from a conference across regions. 6

That matters most for the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, and Big 12, which can place several teams in the top 16. The prior approach could push a third- or fourth-ranked team down the bracket to protect conference separation. Under the new approach, the ranking itself carries more weight, which should produce stronger opening-weekend home-court assignments and more same-conference possibilities later in the bracket. The change arrives alongside the expansion from 68 teams to 76, with eight opening-round games instead of four. 6

The recruiting side produced a clean Texas signal. ESPN reported July 16 that No. 13 2027 SC Next post Jayla Forbes committed to Texas, giving the Longhorns their first commitment in the class. The 6-foot-7 Forbes chose Texas over Notre Dame, UCLA, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, Cal, and Mississippi State. ESPN also listed her summer production at 16.2 points and 9 rebounds per game, with 64.6% shooting from the field and 79.2% from the line during the cited Nike EYBL stretch. 7

Ohio State offered a different kind of roster news on July 19. The Buckeyes are set to enter 2026-27 without a new transfer, with 10 players listed on the roster as of July 16: eight returners and two incoming freshmen. Sydney Mobley, Ohio's Ms. Basketball, has committed and is reclassifying to 2026, but she had not yet been added to the roster when the Columbus Dispatch report was published. 8

The returning core is led by Jaloni Cambridge, who averaged 23.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 4.4 assists in the 2025-26 regular season. Elsa Lemmila averaged 7.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks, while Ava Watson shot 35.6% from three. Those numbers explain why Ohio State can afford to build around continuity, even after Chance Gray left as the No. 24 pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft. 8

The next useful checkpoints are roster corrections, not another round of vague preseason hype: whether Gonzaga replaces Saint-Supery's minutes, whether Michigan resolves Cason's status, whether the NCAA cases produce eligibility relief before fall practice, and how Texas and Ohio State fit their new women's pieces around established cores.