The NCAA released the first NET Rankings of the 2018-19 season today and Michigan checks in at No. 4 in the initial release.
The Wolverines are one of four Big Ten teams in the top ten, joining Ohio State (1), Michigan State (7) and Wisconsin (8).
Cyber Monday Sale!
We’re offering our best price ever on an annual subscription to UM Hoops at 50% off. That’s just $24 for the whole year or $2 per month! Click here to sign up today!
Only one Big Ten school is ranked outside the top 100 (Illinois at 125) which bodes well for the conference’s chances at a high volume of at large NCAA Tournament bids.
Here’s a full list of the Big Ten rankings:
- Ohio State (1)
- Michigan (4)
- Michigan State (7)
- Wisconsin (8)
- Nebraska (14)
- Iowa (15)
- Maryland (17)
- Purdue (20)
- Indiana (34)
- Minnesota (43)
- Rutgers (74)
- Penn State (75)
- Northwestern (83)
- Illinois (125)
Find the full ranking release here. The NET was announced by the NCAA this summer as a replacement for the RPI. It will be the primary metric used by the NCAA Selection Committee.
This graphic released by the NCAA explains (in simple terms) what goes into the NET system.
Scoop. This is what the NCAA just sent out to D-I programs on its new rating system, the NET. pic.twitter.com/POU8f7ZSwe
— John Gasaway (@JohnGasaway) November 4, 2018
Notable Replies
Discuss the Article
21 more replies
eric_shap
First NET rankings released (replacing the RPI this year): https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-net-rankings
OSU #1, Michigan 4th, MSU 7, and Wisconsin 8
UMHoopsFan
4 B1G teams in the top 8, 8 in the top 20. Definitely a better start for the conference, and will make a ton of difference come tourney time if the B1G can keep this up for the next month or so.
buckets12
umhoops
This is the new NCAA Selection Committee metric. When it was announced I wrote about how the lack of transparency was concerning. That hasn’t really changed.
This graphic is basically all the information the NCAA has provided about what goes into the NET.
Regardless of how much the black box nature of the metric annoys me, it bodes well for the Big Ten that so many teams are ranked highly right now.
If the Big Ten can nab a few key wins off of the ACC this week, conference should be in a strong position come March.
It is also ridiculous but not surprising that we don’t get any sort of rating measure. There’s no indication of how far 1 is from 2 or 5 is from 50. Strictly numbered ranks.
It is also probably way too early to release this. If you ran KenPom without preseason factors right now it would probably look wonky. The RPI after Thanksgiving probably looks wonky every year.
dirk
What is the deal with the plus/minus signs in Net Efficiency? Should they be opposite for offense and defense. Eg, steams are good on defense and bad on offense.