College basketball's AP poll is nothing more than a talking point throughout the regular-season, and has no impact whatsoever on where teams are seeded heading into the NCAA Tournament.
With that being said, either Michigan or Virginia will likely be the nation's new No. 1 team come Monday (assuming they don't each lose on Saturday) following Duke's home loss to Syracuse earlier this week.
Out of 351 schools, the Wolverines and Cavaliers are also the final two remaining unbeatens in college basketball, with the former sitting at 17-0 and the latter at 16-0.
So which team is better?
Both clubs have been dominant for much of the campaign so far, and the numbers below support that sentiment.
We've compared some of the most important statistics for each program and placed them side-by-side, and found that their numbers are shockingly similar.
Virginia holds an edge over Michigan in average margin of victory (22.5 to 17), but the Wolverines have the advantage in average margin of victory against ranked opponents (both teams have beaten four AP top-25 clubs, with the Maize and Blue winning by 18.5 points and the Cavaliers by 11.7).
The numbers continue to trend in a similar direction when diving a little deeper.
Both clubs have been comparably dominant away from home, with Michigan coming out victorious by an average of 16.2 points away from Crisler Center, and UVA by an average of 15 away from John Paul Jones Arena.
Offensively, the two teams are shooting exactly one percentage point different on the year — the Maize and Blue are at 47.1 percent and the Cavaliers at 48.1.
The two squads' points per game total is nearly identical as well, with U-M pouring in 73.6 per contest and Virginia 73.8.
What each school has become known for over the last few years, though, has been defense (UVA has always been a defense-oriented club since head coach Tony Bennett took over in 2009-10, and U-M adopted that identity as well when John Beilein hired assistant coach Luke Yaklich prior to 2017-18).
Opponents are shooting a similarly poor percentage against each school (39.7 percent against U-M, and 37 percent against UVA), while the Cavaliers hold a more significant advantage in three-point percentage defense (25.1 percent to 30.2) and points allowed per game (51.7 to 56.6).
It should also be noted that the two programs' strengths of schedule have been nearly equal up to this juncture, with Ken Pomeroy rating Virginia's as the 93rd toughest in the country so far and Michigan's 103rd.
First Loss?
No team has run through the entire college basketball season undefeated since Indiana went 32-0 in 1975-76 (though Kentucky came darned close in 2015 when it went 38-1, with its lone loss coming to Wisconsin in the Final Four), making it seem inevitable that Michigan and Virginia are bound to drop a game at some point.
The first loss could come as early as this weekend for both squads, with U-M heading to Wisconsin and UVA traveling to Duke.
If the Wolverines come out victorious and the Cavaliers fall to the Blue Devils, Michigan will assuredly hold its first No. 1 ranking in the AP poll since it was the nation's top team from Jan. 28-Feb. 4, 2013.
In addition, the Maize and Blue will also hold the honor of being college basketball's last undefeated team, a feat they also laid claim to in 2013, until their first loss on Jan. 13 that year.
We've laid out both Michigan's and Virginia's schedules the rest of the way below:
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