2025 NCAA Tournament bracket: Florida Gators basketball enters as No. 1 seed in March Madness

The Florida Gators will enter the 2025 NCAA Tournament back on top of the college basketball world. The question that remains is whether they will complete March Madness by cutting down the nets as the last team standing.

For the first time since 2014 and third time in program history, Florida has earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Gators will be the top team in the West Region as the program seeks to return to the Final Four more than a decade after last appearing.

UF begins play Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina, against No. 16-seed Norfolk State, a rematch of a 2012 meeting the Gators won 84-50. The game will tip off at 6:50 p.m. ET live on TNT with Ian Eagle, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill and Tracy Wolfson on the call.

The top seeds in the West Region behind Florida are No. 2 St. John’s, No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 4 Maryland. Should UF advance out of its first game, its second-round matchup would come against either No. 8 UConn (in a rematch of a 2014 Final Four meeting) or No. 9 Oklahoma.

The Gators locked up the No. 1 seed for 2025 March Madness given their tremendous level of play in the SEC, which stood out as the nation’s toughest conference this season. UF finished one game behind Auburn in regular-season competition before capturing the 2025 SEC Tournament championship in decisive fashion earlier Sunday.

Florida is 45-20 all-time in the NCAA Tournament with last year’s appearance disappointing as UF fell to Colorado in the first round. That snapped a string of eight straight Round of 32 appearances (2011-14, 2017-19, 2021) as Florida did not make the field in 2015-16 nor 2022-23, and the event was not played in 2020.

The Gators last advanced to the Final Four in 2014; in fact, as a No. 1 seed, they are 2-0 qualifying for the national semifinals with a national championship victory in 2007. Florida is seeking its sixth Final Four appearance (1994, 2000, 2006-07, 2014) and third national championship (2006-07) in program history.

Todd Golden last season became just the second Gators head coach to earn an NCAA Tournament berth inside his first two seasons leading the team. Golden now joins Billy Donovan as one of two coaches to lead Florida to a No. 1 seed in March Madness.