The Florida Gators men’s basketball team earned the No. 1 seed in the South Region of the NCAA Tournament, the selection committee announced Sunday evening. Florida is the fourth overall seed behind Duke, Arizona, and Michigan. The Gators will face the winner of the 16-seed matchup between Prairie View A&M and Lehigh on Friday in Tampa, Florida.
Florida secured back-to-back NCAA Tournament No. 1 seeds for the first time in history, becoming just the 11th program to achieve the feat since 2000.
Here’s a look at the South Region, which consists of three SEC teams.
1. Florida (26-7)
2. Houston (28-6)
3. Illinois (24-8)
4. Nebraska (26-6)
5. Vanderbilt (26-8)
6. North Carolina (24-8)
7. Saint Mary’s (27-5)
8. Clemson (24-10)
9. Iowa (21-12)
10. Texas A&M (21-11)
11. VCU (27-7)
12. McNeese (28-5)
13. Troy (22-11)
14. Penn (18-11)
15. Idaho (21-14)
16. Prairie View A&M / Lehigh
Despite a semifinal loss to Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament, head coach Todd Golden remained confident that Florida had done enough to earn a No. 1 seed—and he was right.
“Looking at Quad 1 wins, I think we’re in a good spot that way. Analytically, the predictive metrics, whether it’s KenPom, Torvik, we’re top four in all those by a wide margin. It’s really not close,” Golden said.
“We had our early-season tough start where we played really good, competitive opponents, and road or semi-away venues where we fell a little bit short. We haven’t lost in 54 days or something leading up to this game, playing some of the best basketball in America. I do believe we’ve done enough to be the fourth 1 seed. But we’ll find out tomorrow night.”
Fresh off a 2025–26 National Championship, Florida is aiming for back-to-back titles and the program’s fourth overall.
“We’re pretty consistent,” Golden said. “We’re just going to go back to practicing hard and doing what we do, focusing on defending, rebounding, taking care of the ball.”
Florida advances past the round of 64, they will face the winner of Clemson vs. Iowa.