Women's college basketball rankings: Michigan up to No. 2 in AP Top 25 after UConn upset
South Carolina remains No. 1 as Michigan posts highest regular-season ranking in program history following week one of the 2026-27 season.
Quick Look
- Michigan vaulted to No.
- 2 in the AP Women's Basketball Top 25 after upsetting UConn 77-66, marking the program's highest regular-season ranking ever.
- South Carolina stayed at No.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Michigan began the 2026-27 season ranked No. 5 in the preseason AP poll, the team's highest preseason ranking in program history. UConn entered the week ranked No. 2 and had not lost a regular-season game since February 6, 2025. JuJu Watkins, the 2025 National Player of the Year, missed all of last season recovering from ACL surgery.
If the first week of the women's college basketball season is a harbinger of things to come, then we are in for an incredible 2026-27 season.
The biggest story of the week was Michigan -- which started the season ranked No. 5 (the team's highest preseason ranking in program history) -- quickly shooting up to the highest regular-season AP ranking in school history after a 77-66 upset of UConn vaulted the Wolverines up to No. 2.
The Huskies, meanwhile, didn't fall far, landing at No. 4. While UConn did lose its first regular-season game since Feb. 6, 2025, Geno Auriemma's squad bounced back nicely on Sunday with a 91-79 win over the No. 10 Iowa Hawkeyes, behind a career-high 39 points from 2026 National Player of the Year Sarah Strong. The Hawkeyes remained at the No. 10 spot, though they now share it with UCLA.
Elsewhere, JuJu Watkins also had a successful return for the USC Trojans after missing all of last season recovering from ACL surgery. The 2025 National Player of the Year is already looking like her old self; through two games, she is averaging 26.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and shooting 46.3% from the field in 26 minutes of play per game. The Trojans remained at No. 3 in the poll after their 2-0 start and received one of the 33 first-place votes.
All the other first-place votes went to South Carolina, which got off to a great start to the season with a 101-93 win over Maryland in Paris on Monday and an 84-39 win over North Carolina on Sunday in Charlotte at the Ally Tipoff. Maryland looked so impressive in the second half of its loss to the Gamecocks that it actually rose one spot from No. 20 to No. 19, while the Tar Heels fell 11 spots to No. 23 after starting the season 0-2. In addition to the loss to South Carolina, UNC fell to Oklahoma in their season opener. Oklahoma rose seven spots to No. 14.
Here is a look at the rest of this week's rankings.
AP Women's Basketball Top 25 week 1 rankings
RANKTEAMRECORDPOINTSPREV
1
South Carolina
2-0
823 (32)
1
2
Michigan
2-0
777
5
3
USC
2-0
734 (1)
3
4
UConn
2-1
733
2
5
Duke
2-0
681
4
6
Texas
2-0
641
6
7
Louisville
3-0
613
7
8
Vanderbilt
2-0
609
8
9
LSU
2-0
561
9
10
UCLA
2-0
469
11
10
Iowa
2-1
469
10
12
Kentucky
3-0
447
14
13
Notre Dame
2-0
430
13
14
Oklahoma
2-0
363
21
15
TCU
3-0
336
15
16
Washington
2-0
314
16
17
Ohio State
3-0
282
18
18
Minnesota
2-0
268
17
19
Oklahoma State
2-0
216
22
19
Maryland
1-1
216
20
21
Ole Miss
2-0
214
19
22
Illinois
2-0
134
23
23
North Carolina
0-2
110
12
24
West Virginia
3-0
108
24
25
Nebraska
2-0
44
NR
Open Questions
- How will Michigan sustain its No. 2 ranking through the rest of the season?
- What is the full updated AP Top 25 ranking after week one?
- Will UConn's loss to Michigan affect its NCAA tournament seeding?
