ORLANDO, Fla. – With the official start of the 2023 season and a handful of games already in the books for teams across the nation, D1Softball.com released its updated week one top 25 rankings Monday, a poll that saw the UCF Knights slotted in at No. 19 in the nation.
Despite a 3-1 beginning to the season during the 2023 Black and Gold Classic over the weekend, the Knights drop four spots from their No. 15 ranking in D1Softball's preseason top 25. UCF opened the campaign with a narrow 4-2 defeat to the Georgia Bulldogs, ranked No. 10 in D1Softball's preseason poll, before rattling off three straight wins against Massachusetts, Boise State and Ohio State.
UCF remains the lone representative from the American Athletic Conference ranked within D1Softball's updated top 25. The SEC leads all conferences with nine ranked teams, followed by the ACC and Pac-12 with four representatives, the Big 12 with three ranked teams and the Big Ten with two. The Sun Belt and Conference-USA round out the rankings with one representative each.
Eight of the Knights' 2023 opponents are included in D1Softball's latest rankings: UCLA (2), Florida (3), Oklahoma State (5), Georgia (8), Alabama (12), Duke (20), Louisiana (21) and Texas A&M (25).
COMPLETE D1SOFTBALL WEEK ONE TOP 25
| Team | Overall Record | Record Last Week | Previous Rank |
| 1. Oklahoma | 5-0 | 5-0 | 1 |
| 2. UCLA * | 6-0 | 6-0 | 2 |
| 3. Florida * | 3-0 | 3-0 | 5 |
| 4. Arkansas | 5-0 | 5-0 | 8 |
| 5. Oklahoma State * | 3-1 | 3-1 | 3 |
| 6. Clemson | 5-0 | 5-0 | 9 |
| 7. Florida State | 3-1 | 3-1 | 4 |
| 8. Georgia * | 5-0 | 5-0 | 10 |
| 9. Tennessee | 3-0 | 3-0 | 12 |
| 10. Washington | 4-1 | 4-1 | 21 |
| 11. Virginia Tech | 5-0 | 5-0 | 13 |
| 12. Alabama * | 2-1 | 2-1 | 6 |
| 13. Northwestern | 2-2 | 2-2 | 7 |
| 14. Stanford | 3-2 | 3-2 | 11 |
| 15. Kentucky | 2-0-1 | 2-0-1 | 16 |
| 16. Texas | 2-1-1 | 2-1-1 | 14 |
| 17. LSU | 5-0 | 5-0 | 17 |
| 18. Arizona | 5-0 | 5-0 | 18 |
| 19. UCF | 3-1 | 3-1 | 15 |
| 20. Duke * | 3-2 | 3-2 | 22 |
| 21. Louisiana * | 4-0 | 4-0 | 20 |
| 22. North Texas | 4-0 | 4-0 | 24 |
| 23. Auburn | 4-1 | 4-1 | 19 |
| 24. Maryland | 4-1 | 4-1 | NR |
| 25. Texas A&M | 6-0 | 6-0 | NR |
* Denotes UCF 2023 opponent