Using Basketball Rankings to Evaluate an upcoming Game

There are a lot of different ways to rank teams in college basketball. Some ranking systems are purely subjective and others use more objective metrics, like Ken Pomeroy’s. Others, like the AP Poll, combine many different opinions and methods to try to come up with a consensus on which team is best. The newest and most prominent of these rankings is the NCAA’s NET, which replaced the RPI this season as the primary ranking system presented to the Selection Committee during the seeding process.

The NET ranks all 363, or Division I, teams using a variety of factors to determine their total value. The most important component is winning percentage, but the NET also weighs other aspects of a team’s profile like strength of schedule, game location and scoring margin, as well as the quality of wins and losses. The NET also uses a quadrant system to add additional weighting for certain components of the rating.

While a lot of the ranking systems are different, they all share one thing in common: they’re not as accurate as a human ranking. Regardless of how they’re created, these rankings are a popular aspect of the sport, and they can be helpful in evaluating an upcoming game.

Basketball recruiting rankings help fans learn which high school players are the best overall recruits and which colleges are offering them their highest star ratings (everyone has two stars, or better). These basketball recruiting rankings are used by the major recruiting sites such as 247Sports and Rivals.