The Atlantic Coast Conference is filled with a plethora of programs that can exceed expectations and become one of the top squads in the conference, but it's no secret that the top dawgs in the ACC heading into the 2025-26 college basketball season are Duke and Louisville. But who sits at the top? Ranking teams in the preseason is a really difficult thing to do, as it's essentially just looking at who has the best roster on paper. Things like continuity, veterans, and talent obviously play into that, but it can be difficult to evaluate a club before seeing any action.
Let's take a look at the cases for the Cardinals and Blue Devils to be the top team in the ACC heading into the season.
The case for Louisville
What makes Louisville such an appealing team to analysts and insiders throughout the preseason comes down to one word: veterans. After Pat Kelsey completely turned the program around in 2024-25 after a depressing two seasons with Kenny Payne, bringing the Cards to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2019, he's reloaded the roster and now has Louisville viewed as a perennial national title contender. Ranked No. 7 in ESPN's most recent preseason top 25, Kelsey is returning two of his top five scorers from a season ago in Kasean Pryor and J'Vonne Hadley, while getting center Aly Khalifa back, who transferred from BYU in 2024 but missed all of last season with a knee injury. The program also generated one of the top Transfer Portal classes this offseason, headlined by Adrian Wooley (18.8 ppg at Kennesaw State), Ryan Conwell (16.5 ppg at Xavier), and Isaac McKneely (42.1% from three at Virginia). Mix that in with five-star point guard Mikel Brown Jr., who's coming in as a freshman, and the Cardinals have one of the best backcourts in the nation right away. Beyond just the talent itself, Louisville's roster is filled with upperclassmen, with at least three and potentially four starters being juniors or older. In today's era of college basketball, continuity and veteran leadership trump talent every day of the week.
The case for Duke
Jon Scheyer enters the 2025-26 season in an opposite position to that of Kelsey, and it's a big reason why Duke is so hard to rank throughout the preseason. The Blue Devils lost their entire starting five from last season's Final Four team to the NBA Draft, and now enter this campaign with a completely new rotation. Scheyer did return some key guys in Caleb Foster, Isaiah Evans, Darren Harris, Patrick Ngongba II, and Maliq Brown, but none of these guys have experience as leading offensive pieces on a championship-caliber team. Foster is entering a make-or-break season after a bit of a disappointing sophomore campaign, Evans was in strictly a 3-and-D role as a rookie, Ngongba and Harris didn't play significant minutes for a large chunk of their freshman seasons, and Brown rarely looks for his own offense. Now, this isn't to say that these guys don't have the potential to break out onto the scene this season; we just haven't seen it yet. A lot of the Blue Devils' offensive load will fall onto the incoming No. 1-ranked 2025 recruiting class. Although Duke likely has much more talent than the Cardinals, relying on rookies such as Cameron Boozer, Dame Sarr, and Nik Khamenia to be your top offensive producers can make insiders hesitant to completely trust that all of these guys will blossom into stars right away. Duke will have at least two and potentially three freshmen in the starting lineup on day one, with Foster being the only upperclassman in the starting five. Duke's ceiling is a top-three-to-five team in the nation, but its floor is probably a lot lower than Louisville's, given the lack of experience, which makes the Blue Devils a tough squad to feel sure about in the preseason. ESPN has Duke ranked as the No. 12 team in the nation.
You be the judge. Duke and Louisville will face off twice through conference play in 2025-26, and both will likely be top seeds come the 2026 NCAA Tournament.