Women's college basketball rankings: LSU exits top 10 after 0-2 start to SEC play

The start of the 2026 calendar year brought some shakeups to the AP Top 25

By Isabel Gonzalez

Jan 5, 2026 at 12:30 pm ET • 2 min read

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The first week of 2026 gave the AP Top 25 poll a major shake with multiple ranked teams falling in the first few days of the new year. UConn remains at the top with 28 first-place votes, which puts the Huskies just four votes away from the first No. 1 unanimous decision of the season.

Texas survived an upset scare against now-No. 18 Ole Miss on Sunday to stay at No. 2. The Longhorns are 17-0, their best start since the 1985-86 season.

South Carolina stayed at No. 3 and UCLA kept its No. 4 ranking following a 34-point victory over now-No. 21 USC. Meanwhile, LSU fell from No. 5 to No. 12 after losses to Kentucky and Vanderbilt, which helped both teams enter the top 10.

This is the first time a Kim Mulkey-led team has started conference play 0-2. Things won't get any easier for the Tigers as they will host Texas next weekend. As for Vanderbilt, the Commodores moved up to No. 7 after their first win over a top-five opponent since the 2008-09 season. They pulled it off thanks to a 32-point performance by Mikayla Blakes.

LSU was not the only team with a shaky start to the new year. Elsewhere in the top 10, Michigan, Maryland, TCU and Iowa State suffered losses. Player of the Year candidate Audi Crooks registered a double-double of 26 points and 10 rebounds in a loss to Baylor, but it was noteworthy that Baylor figured out how to keep her scoreless in the fourth quarter. Before this game, no other team had really managed to stop Crooks.

Notre Dame dropped out of the top 25 as Niele Ivey's six-player rotation suffered back-to-back defeats. The Fighting Irish took an overtime loss to Georgia Tech on Jan. 1 and then a 14-point loss to Duke on Sunday even with Hannah Hidalgo flirting with a triple-double.

In the Big Ten, the Iowa Hawkeyes stayed at No. 14 following an 86-76 victory over Nebraska. They join the Bruins as the only two undefeated teams in conference play, which could make their meeting in early February a very interesting one.

There are only four women's college basketball teams still undefeated, UConn, Texas, Vanderbilt and Texas Tech -- whose 16-0 record is the best start in program history.

AP Women's Basketball Top 25

Rank	Team	Record	Points	Prev.
1	UConn	15-0	796 (28)	1
2	Texas	17-0	772 (4)	2
3	South Carolina	15-1	725	3
4	UCLA	14-1	715	4
5	Oklahoma	14-1	654	8
6	Kentucky	15-1	625	11
7	Vanderbilt	15-0	621	12
8	Maryland	15-1	537	7
8	Michigan	11-2	817	6
10	Louisville	14-3	485	13
11	Iowa State	14-1	462	10
12	LSU	14-2	456	5
13	TCU	14-1	454	8
14	Iowa	12-2	403	14
15	Michigan State	14-1	280	24
16	Baylor	13-3	278	22
17	Texas Tech	16-0	263	21
18	Ole Miss	14-3	243	15
19	Ohio State	13-2	237	19
20	Tennessee	10-3	162	23
21	USC	10-4	150	17
22	North Carolina	13-4	129	16
23	Washington	12-2	117	23
24	Princeton	13-1	91	25
25	Nebraska	13-2	65	20