First college basketball NET rankings released by NCAA: Michigan lands at No. 1 ahead of Duke in key metric

The first official release of the 2025-26 men’s college basketball NET rankings, a ranking system utilized as a sorting tool for NCAA Tournament selection committee that factors in winning percentage, game results, strength of schedule, game location, wins and losses quality and team efficiency, debuted Monday with Michigan at No. 1 and Duke at No. 2. The release was good news in particular for the Big Ten, which had six teams inside the top-20 — including Purdue at No. 3 and Michigan State at No. 10. 

The NET replaced the RPI as an official selection committee criteria prior to the 2018-19 season. It is a results and predictive-based metric.

One could argue it is expert-level on the predictive side, too: Since the introduction of the NET in 2018-19, the eventual national champion has been ranked inside the top-10 of the NET in five of the six years an NCAA Tournament was held. The lone exception came in 2021-22 when Kansas ranked No. 14 in the first rankings. (For posterity: Kansas and Dayton — for my money the two best teams in the Covid year — were also top-10 in the debut NET rankings in 2019-20.)

Most of the top 10 in the NET rankings correlate to the most recent AP Top 25 poll but with a few notable exceptions. Vanderbilt, for example, ranked No. 24 in last week’s AP poll but is No. 4 in the NET. Gonzaga, ranked No. 12 in last week’s AP poll, is No. 5 in the NET.

Efficiency and scoring margin are big reasons for both Vanderbilt and Gonzaga’s early season success and unsurprisingly both landed higher by a wide margin in the NET than in the AP poll. Vanderbilt is 10th this season in scoring margin led by the No. 2 offense in adjusted efficiency metrics at BartTorvik.com. Gonzaga is top-20 in efficiency on both sides of the floor and 11th in scoring margin even accounting for its 40-point loss to Michigan last week in Vegas.

Because of the unusual NET metrics, there are some unusual suspects inside the top portion of the rankings. Indiana, for example, ranks No. 11 in the NET. LSU (No. 19), Butler (No. 21), Utah State (No. 22) and Yale (No. 25) are also higher in the NET than in human polls.

The full top 30 of the NET is below. You can find the full rankings for every team in the NET here. 

Wait, what are the NET rankings? 

If you’re just joining us — or if you’ve slept since last season — here’s a refresher on what, exactly, the NET rankings are and how it is formulated. As of May 2020, it is a two-component metric sorted by two categories: Team Value Index — a results-based feature accounting for beating quality opponents, particularly away from home, and an adjusted net efficiency rating. The efficiency rating is a team net efficiency metric adjusted for strength of opponent and location.

Here’s more from the NCAA:

The NET includes more components than just winning percentage. It takes into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses.

The rankings are used to break down teams and results by establishing team resume’s. Those resumes will then be broken down into team sheets and used by the selection committee as a sorting tool for the NCAA Tournament.

Part of the benefit of the NET is the simplification of resumes using the quadrant system — determined by game location and opponent’s NET ranking. The quadrant system is as follows:

• Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75
• Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135
• Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240
• Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353

So which teams are higher than expected?

Many teams!

The biggest surprises are No. 4 Vanderbilt, No. 11 Indiana and No. 19 LSU.

Vanderbilt was No. 24 in last week’s AP poll and Indiana was No. 25. LSU has not been ranked this season.

Vandy as noted above is top-10 in scoring margin with the No. 2 scoring offense in college basketball. It is No. 2 in the NET-generated Wins Above Bubble (WAB) metric. 

Indiana is No. 33 in WAB with five of its seven wins coming against Quadrant 4 opponents. Its ranking seems the most puzzling because its other metrics aren’t outstanding, either; its average opponent NET ranking is 267, for instance. Being fourth in the country in scoring margin seems to be playing a big part here. (This, too, is puzzling. We’ll get to that in the next section.)

As for LSU: It is No. 8 in scoring margin on the season, No. 41 in WAB and — like Indiana — also succeeding against lesser competition. All seven of its wins this season have come against Quadrant 3 or Quadrant 4 opponents. 

Which teams are lower than expected?

As noted above, scoring margin is important — and while it is clearly not the only metric taken into account, at this point in the season it is a heavily-weighted part of the NET. All but five teams in the top-20 in scoring margin this season are inside the top-25 of the first NET. The five exceptions are:

Those teams being outside the top-25 qualify as lower-than-expected material.

Other teams lower than expected include:

• Houston (No. 18 in NET) — Ranked No. 3 in last week’s AP Top 25 poll and 6-1 on the season with its lone loss coming vs. a top-20 Tennessee team on a neutral floor.
• Florida (No. 33 in NET) — The reigning national champions are 5-2 on the season with the two losses — to Arizona and to TCU — likely bringing it down in the results-based portion of the metric weighting. Florida was No. 10 in last week’s AP poll.
• UCLA (No. 76 in NET) — Ranked No. 18 in last week’s AP poll. A loss to Cal this week was its second loss of the season. 

When will the next NET rankings be released?

You won’t have to wait long: The NET rankings update daily from here on out during the college basketball season. The CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 will update daily as well and the  AP Top 25 and Coaches polls will continue to be released each Monday.