College basketball rankings: Auburn and Duke have already met this season, but another game would be great

Auburn is still undefeated in the SEC and ranked No. 1 in the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1. Duke is still undefeated in the ACC and ranked No. 2 in the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1. And I hope you guys realize how cool it is that the sport’s two best teams (according to most humans, the NET and KenPom.com) are running through their conferences while being led by the two favorites to secure National Player of the Year honors — namely Cooper Flagg (Duke) and Johni Broome (Auburn)

This really is awesome.

Every college basketball season delivers great storylines, obviously; it’s impossible for them not to given the size of the sport. But it’s not normal for two players to basically separate from the pack in the POY race this early, and for them to do it while leading the two teams that have also separated from the rest of the sport, at least according to the betting markets. Right now, FanDuel Sportsbook lists Auburn at +380 to win the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Duke is +390. Nobody else is better than +1000.

Needless to say, we have a ways to go. And single-elimination postseason tournaments are often unpredictable and inadequate representations of the regular season that just unfolded. But, that acknowledged, it’s fun to think about a possible title game between Auburn and Duke, a rematch of a game they played at Cameron Indoor Stadium in early December, a game between the dominant SEC champ and the dominant ACC champ, between Broome, the 22-year-old graduate student, and Flagg, the 18-year-old freshman.

Whatever we get on that first Monday in April, I’ll be pumped for it. But, man, getting Auburn-Duke would really be something. And, if the brackets unfold to form, that is what we’ll get.

Top 25 And 1 rankings