The NCAA on Monday launched its 2024-25 season debut of the faculty basketball NET rankings — a instrument utilized by the NCAA Tournament’s choice committee as a part of its standards to judge a workforce’s résumé — with Tennessee at No. 1 and AP-ranked No. 1 Kansas at No. 9. The Vols ranked No. 7 within the newest AP Top 25 final week however have an ideal 7-0 file and a scoring margin that ranks No. 7 in all of school hoops.
Auburn, Gonzaga, Duke and Pitt are Nos. 2-5 within the NET rankings in a mixture of groups that rank extremely in analytics however have largely been dinged for early-season slips. Of these, Auburn is the one workforce but to take a loss on the season. Duke has two losses on the season — each of which got here to groups ranked inside the highest 10 of the NET in Kentucky (No. 8) and Kansas (No. 9).
Among the elements the NET takes under consideration embody power of schedule, scoring margin, internet effectivity on offense and protection, and high quality of each wins and losses, per the NCAA. The variety of elements included makes predicting the NET, which updates day by day, one thing of a guessing recreation. Case in level: Unranked Illinois is up at No. 10, whereas undefeated Oklahoma sits at No. 37.
This yr’s NET rankings additionally features a metric known as “WAB” — an acronym that stands for Wins Above Bubble — which is a metric formulated by analytics web site BartTorvik.com that now goes on the Team Sheets for consideration by the choice committee. Auburn is No. 1 in WAB to start out the season adopted by Oregon, Marquette, Kansas and Memphis.
The first run of NET rankings will be discovered right here. The prime 10 is as follows:
NET Rankings Top 10
| Rank | Team | WL | Avg Opp NET Rank |
Avg Opp NET |
NET SOS | WAB |
| 1 | Tennessee | 7-0 | 41 | 128 | 96 | 7 |
| 2 | Auburn | 7-0 | 12 | 94 | 16 | 1 |
| 3 | Gonzaga | 7-1 | 24 | 113 | 39 | 9 |
| 4 | Duke | 5-2 | 23 | 112 | 28 | 26 |
| 5 | Pittsburgh | 7-1 | 8 | 85 | 29 | 6 |
| 6 | Florida | 8-0 | 108 | 163 | 268 | 18 |
| 7 | Marquette | 8-0 | 78 | 148 | 67 | 3 |
| 8 | Kentucky | 7-0 | 146 | 176 | 212 | 15 |
| 9 | Kansas | 7-0 | 24 | 113 | 49 | 4 |
| 10 | Illinois | 6-1 | 187 | 186 | 147 | 31 |
– Full NET rankings by way of NCAA
Why Tennessee is No. 1
Kansas will retain its spot at No. 1 within the AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll on Monday. Somewhere down these rankings — in all probability between No. 3 and No. 5 — will likely be Tennessee. So why does the NET have the Vols so excessive?
Several elements assist reply that. The first is scoring margin, the place Tennessee is seventh behind solely Cincinnati, Kentucky, Maryland, Illinois, UCLA and Missouri. It has received all seven of its video games on the season and by a mean margin of 26.9 factors. which incorporates 22 level and 15 level wins over Louisville and Baylor.
Another rationalization, and maybe most significantly, is how Tennessee has fared in opposition to Quad 1 competitors. While it has not performed the hardest schedule, it has dominated in video games in opposition to top-end opponents, with 22 and 15 level wins over Louisville and Baylor, respectively, far and away its most essential performances to issue into its rating.
NET not the end-all, be-all
One factor to contemplate with the NET rankings is that, whereas it’s a instrument the NCAA Tournament choice committee will use to contemplate workforce resumes, it’s not the solely instrument they are going to use. The 12-member committee additionally has three predictive rankings in BartTorvik.com, KenPom.com and BPI in addition to three results-based metrics in WAB, Strength of Record and KPI. Together they’re all thought-about as knowledge factors on the NCAA’s official workforce sheets, and nobody metric is weighted extra than the opposite.
Early surprises
Two-loss Duke sitting at No. 4, forward of undefeated (and preseason/present AP-No. 1 Kansas at No. 9) is probably the most important whoa. Not simply because Kansas has zero losses and Duke has two, however as a result of one notable outcome: Kansas beat Duke simply final week!
Teams that had been greater than anticipated embody, however aren’t restricted to the next:
- No. 6 Florida (No. 21 in Monday’s Top 25 And 1)
- No. 10 Illinois (No. 17)
- No. 12 Ohio State (No. 19)
A number of groups that had been decrease than anticipated embody:
- No. 9 Kansas (No. 1)
- No. 17 Wisconsin (No. 9)
- No. 19 Iowa State (No. 3)
- No. 21 Purdue (No. 7)
- No. 22 Baylor (No. 13)
- No. 31 Memphis (No. 14)
- No. 51 Arkansas (NR)
- No. 65 Arizona (NR)
- No. 86 Rutgers (NR)
