TheKarateFan's Week Pre-Season Ballot
| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Carolina | They have 4 returning starters from their team that went to the championship game |
| 2 | Gonzaga | They have a few returning players including Drew Timme and enjoy consisten success despite not having won a title yet |
| 3 | Kentucky | Returning POY along with other new additions and returning players |
| 4 | Kansas | National Champions difficult to not include Kansas in the preseason in top 5 |
| 5 | Baylor | Baylor has enjoyed a lot of recent success and Scott Drew seems to be a good coach |
| 6 | Houston | Houston also seems to be well coach and has enjoyed recent success |
| 7 | Duke | Difficukt to guage how succesful Duke will be with a new coach but they have the best recruiting class coming in this season |
| 8 | UCLA | Well coached and Jaime Jaquez Jr. is returning |
| 9 | Arkansas | Great recruiting class mixed with transfers coming and they seem to be well coached |
| 10 | Creighton | Returning players mixed with transfers |
| 11 | Tennessee | They return a lot of talent from their SEC championship winning team |
| 12 | Texas | Great incoming recruiting class and a good coach |
| 13 | Auburn | A lot of returning players from a succesful team last season |
| 14 | Indiana | Retuning 4 starters from last seaon |
| 15 | TCU | The majority of their players are turning this season |
| 16 | Villanova | I realizer their coach retired but its difficult to bet against Villanova until they show they are no longer competitive |
| 17 | Arizona | They are an experienced team this year |
| 18 | Michigan | They have a very good incoming recruiting class |
| 19 | Oregon | They have a good mix of returning players and transfers |
| 20 | Virginia | Decent recruiting class along with having a good coach |
| 21 | San Diego State | They have a lot of retuning players |
| 22 | Alabama | Great incoming class |
| 23 | Illinois | Good mix of incoming freshman and transfers |
| 24 | Dayton | Dayton basically has all of their major contributors returning this season |
| 25 | Texas Tech | A decent amount of transfers coming in |
Overall Rationale
It is difficult to anticipate how well a team will gel before they start playing decent competition but the best factors to gauge a team this early in the season are their incoming players and returning players.