Michigan Reaches No. 2 for the First Time as South Carolina Holds No. 1 and Nebraska Enters the Women's AP Top 25

Four days after it ended UConn's 39-game regular-season winning streak, Michigan got its reward. The Wolverines are No. 2 in the women's AP Top 25 released Monday, Nov. 9, the highest ranking in program history. Michigan opened the season at No. 5, and its previous peak was No. 4 on Feb. 7, 2022, according to ESPN.

South Carolina is still No. 1, and it is not especially close. The Gamecocks drew 32 of the 33 first-place votes from the national media panel and 823 points. Michigan collected 777 points without a first-place vote. USC took the other first-place vote and stayed at No. 3. The full poll is on ESPN's rankings page (opens in a new tab) and NCAA.com (opens in a new tab).

One night in Ann Arbor did it

Michigan's jump comes down to Thursday, Nov. 5, at Crisler Center. Te'Yala Delfosse scored a career-high 22 points, Michigan won the fourth quarter 22-13, and the Wolverines beat then-No. 2 UConn 77-66 in the first top-five women's game ever played in that building. Three days later they raised their Elite Eight banner and routed Wright State 109-52.

Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico was gracious about the program the Wolverines had just knocked off. "I have the most respect for him of any coach," Barnes Arico said of UConn's Geno Auriemma, according to the Associated Press.

The tightest gap in the poll

UConn fell two spots to No. 4, but only barely. The Huskies finished with 733 points, one behind USC, after beating No. 10 Iowa 91-79 on Sunday behind Sarah Strong's career-high 39. A single voter swapping the two on one ballot would have flipped them.

Duke slipped one spot to No. 5 with 681 points. Texas, Louisville, Vanderbilt and LSU held at Nos. 6 through 9, and two ties appear further down. UCLA and Iowa share No. 10 with 469 points apiece. Oklahoma State and Maryland are tied at No. 19 with 216, two points ahead of No. 21 Ole Miss.

USC is the team with the most to say about next week's top spot. JuJu Watkins is back after missing roughly 20 months with a torn ACL, and the Trojans visit South Carolina on Sunday, Nov. 15, in the week's marquee game.

Oklahoma climbs, North Carolina sinks

The two biggest moves both trace back to the same opener in Paris. Oklahoma beat North Carolina 91-79 on Nov. 2, with LeeLee Bell scoring 25, then added a 57-point win over Morgan State. That was enough to lift the Sooners seven spots, from No. 21 to No. 14.

North Carolina went the other way. The Tar Heels followed the Paris loss with an 84-39 defeat against South Carolina at the Ally Tipoff in Charlotte and dropped 11 spots, from No. 12 to No. 23, the steepest fall in the poll. They are 0-2 and still ranked, which says something about how much voters liked them in October.

Kentucky rose two spots to No. 12 after a 93-78 win over NC State in Charlotte, where Ajsa Sivka scored 32 with eight 3s, according to ESPN. Oklahoma State also climbed three spots, from No. 22 into the tie at No. 19.

Nebraska in, NC State out

That Kentucky loss cost NC State its spot. The Wolfpack, No. 25 in the preseason poll, finished second among teams receiving votes with 35 points. Baylor led the also-ran list with 39, followed by Arizona State with 20 and Virginia with 18.

Nebraska replaced NC State at No. 25 with 44 points. The Huskers had enough votes to be 26th in the preseason poll, and they were 2-0 on poll day after beating San Jose State 81-54 and Western Illinois 98-35, according to Nebraska's announcement (opens in a new tab). Britt Prince was averaging 21.0 points through those two games. Last season, Amy Williams' team spent seven straight weeks in the Top 25 before dropping out on Jan. 26, 2026.

It was a good Monday all around in Lincoln. The Nebraska men also cracked their AP Top 25 at No. 25 the same day. The women's first game as a ranked team went smoothly, too: Prince scored 24, including four 3s, in a 76-35 win over North Carolina A&T (opens in a new tab) on Tuesday night.

The Big Ten matches a record

Nebraska's arrival gives the Big Ten 10 ranked teams, tying the record the SEC set last season, according to the AP. The league's group runs from Michigan at No. 2 and USC at No. 3 down through UCLA, Iowa, Washington, Ohio State, Minnesota, Maryland, Illinois and Nebraska.

The SEC has seven ranked teams, including four of the top nine in South Carolina, Texas, Vanderbilt and LSU. The ACC has four, the Big 12 has three and the Big East has one, UConn.

What could shake it up next

The Big Ten count gets an immediate test on Thursday, Nov. 12, when UConn visits No. 17 Ohio State before heading to No. 7 Louisville on Sunday. Michigan plays its first game as the No. 2 team in the country that same Thursday at Columbia, a 7 p.m. ET tip on ESPN+. Then comes USC at South Carolina, which could rearrange the top three all over again.

Off the court, the early signing period for the 2027 recruiting class opened Wednesday, Nov. 11, and runs through Nov. 18, according to NCSA's recruiting calendar, so expect ranked programs to spend the week announcing classes between games.

Voters weigh in again Monday.

Sources: Associated Press, ESPN, NCAA.com, Yahoo Sports, Nebraska Athletics, NCSA.

Photo: Michigan Photography (file photo from Nov. 5, 2026, vs. UConn).