North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio State, Connecticut, and Syracuse Round out Top Five

In theory, every team is on the road to The Final Four. Truth is most of them are heading for a dead end. So to help you navigate this year’s field, ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com mapped out this season’s top 25.

The North Carolina Tarheels are the number one team in ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com’s joint preseason college basketball “Power Rankings,” part of a comprehensive look at the upcoming season in The Mag’s College Basketball Preview Issue on newsstands today.

Get an early start on your bracket with a team-by-team breakdown of the top 25, including Chad Ford’s top pro prospect, Joe Lunardi’s games with bracket impact, and a look at each team’s offensive tendencies courtesy of Synergy Sports. Root for an also-ran? No worries – all 319 teams that didn’t make the top 25 are also ranked.

The top 25 college football teams in ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com’s “Power Rankings” are listed below with additional narrative available at https://bit.ly/rGXSyt and in ESPN The Magazine:

1. North Carolina
2. Kentucky
3. Ohio State
4. Connecticut
5. Syracuse
6. Duke
7. Vanderbilt
8. Florida
9. Memphis
10. Louisville
11. Pittsburgh
12. Baylor
13. Wisconsin
14. Kansas
15. Xavier
16. Arizona
17. Marquette
18. Alabama
19. Cincinnati
20. UCLA
21. Texas A & M
22. Michigan
23. Gonzaga
24. California
25. Michigan State

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