Despite some key losses to some of the conference's leading teams, the Big Ten continued to be near the top of the premiere conferences in college basketball.
The Big Ten Conference pushed their program total to six featured teams in this week's Associated Press top 25 rankings as the AP released their poll on Monday. No. 7 Purdue led the way for the conference after jumping inside the top 10 from last week. No. 9 Michigan State dropped to No. 9, but gave the Big Ten two top 10 teams.
The Big Ten flexed its conference depth including No. 18 Maryland, No. 21 Wisconsin, No. 23 Illinois, and No. 24 Michigan. The conference also featured Oregon and UCLA as receiving votes after the Ducks fell out of the rankings following their home loss to Nebraska on Sunday. The Huskers failed to garner any votes in this week's rankings despite taking down two top 25 programs last week.
The Southeastern Conference remained at the top of the sport with nine programs inside of the top 25 led by four of the top 6 teams in the nation. No. 1 Auburn leads the pack followed by No. 3 Alabama, No. 4 Tennessee, and No. 6 Florida. The SEC added another top 10 team with No. 10 Texas A&M.
No. 14 Kentucky and No. 15 Missouri were featured in the middle of the pack, while No. 22 Mississippi State and No. 25 Ole Miss wrapped up the final spots in the poll. Vanderbilt, Texas, and Oklahoma all received at least one vote in this week's rankings as well, giving the SEC 12 of their 16 teams representation in this week's AP poll.
The lone Atlantic Coast Conference team featured was No. 2 Duke, while Clemson and Louisville received votes. The Big 12 included two top 10 teams with No. 5 Houston and No. 8 Iowa State, while No. 13 Texas Tech made the biggest jump in this week's ranking up nine spots. The preseason No. 1 team now sits at No. 16 with Kansas, as No. 20 Arizona entered the poll following last week's unranked spot.
The Big East remains with three teams in the top 25, as No. 11 Marquette leads the conference despite dropping two spots with No. 12 St. John's rising three positions. Two-time defending national champion UConn rose six spots to No. 19. Nebraska's first ranked win of the season at then-No. 14 Creighton continues to gain traction sitting 29th in the receiving votes category.
The final teams receiving votes in this week's poll included Clemson, Saint Mary's, Louisville, Creighton, Oregon, UCLA, New Mexico, Drake, Gonzaga, Utah State, Vanderbilt, Baylor, George Mason, Texas, and Oklahoma.
Nebraska has faced eight programs receiving votes in this week's rankings, going 4-4 in those contests including victories over Creighton, Illinois, Oregon, and UCLA. The Huskers have suffered losses to Saint Mary's, Michigan State, Purdue, and Wisconsin.
Nebraska's next scheduled top 25 contest is set for Thursday, Feb. 13 when No. 18 Maryland visits Pinnacle Bank Arena. Nebraska will travel to Washington on Wednesday for a 9:30 p.m. CST tip off, then returns home for a Sunday battle against Ohio State at 1 p.m CST.