The top 25 rankings are important for understanding just who is killing it in college basketball, but we can go deeper — all the way to the bubble and beyond.
The NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET, is a rankings system used in Division I basketball to help figure out which teams are going to participate in March Madness. As the NCAA puts it, NET “takes into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses,” the latter of which is determined by placing every Division I matchup into different quadrants, ranked 1 through 4, with 1 being the strongest teams and 4 the weakest — Quads aren’t just determined by record, but also whether a game was played at home, on the road or at a neutral site.
Using NET, we can get a sense of which teams are the best at a given moment, as well as which ones are on the bubble for selection in March. While updated daily by the NCAA, we’ll track changes weekly.
With that, here are the top 10 women’s college basketball teams through Jan. 26, according to NET.
The Top 10
10. Iowa (previous: 13)
TCU fell out of the top 10 following a ranked-ranked loss to Ohio State, opening up a spot for someone else to enter it, but Iowa leapt over both Maryland and Kentucky to take it. That’s good news for Iowa, which beat that same Ohio State team over the weekend as well as now-No. 16 Maryland before that. The bad news for the Hawkeyes is that they lost senior guard Taylor McCabe to an ACL tear against the Buckeyes — she was fourth in scoring for Iowa at 8.3 points per game, while adding 3.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists.
Oh, and with TCU’s exit, there isn’t a Big 12 team in NET’s top 10, either.
9. Michigan State (previous: 9)
Michigan State played just one game last week, a 74-68 win over USC. It’s going to be difficult for the Spartans to move up much further than this without a combination of Big Ten dominance and another team slipping, as Michigan State has played a weaker schedule than anyone else ahead of them save one team — the only one with more Quad 4 games, too — and none of those squads get to take it easy the rest of the way, either.
8. Louisville (previous: 8)
While Louisville has one more defeat than Michigan State, it’s also 5-0 on the road and suffered all of its losses in Quad 1 matchups, while the Spartans lost a Quad 2 game. The ACC has been easier than the Big Ten, yes, but these considerations count for a lot in NET. The Cardinals played one game last week, too, an 85-56 rout of Boston College.
Louisville had just one game last week, but made it count. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
7. Vanderbilt (previous: 7)
Vanderbilt is no longer undefeated, and it did lose by 29 points, but it lost by 29 points to South Carolina. This is still a 20-1 team that has played a schedule roughly comparable to that of Texas, Louisville, Michigan State and TCU. Now, if the Commodores keep losing against other tough SEC opponents, then that’s a different story, but remember that last week also included a dub against Michigan.
6. Michigan (previous: 6)
Speaking of. The Wolverines have lost three games, but all in Quad 1 matchups, and two of those defeats were by a combined six points, as each were 72-69 affairs — one to Vandy, as mentioned, and the other to No. 1 UConn, whose average margin of victory this season is a hair under 39 points even with that close one. Michigan recovered from its defeat to the Dores by beating Rutgers and USC — the Wolverines face another significant challenge on Sunday in the form of Michigan State.
5. LSU (previous: 5)
While LSU has still played by far the weakest schedule of any of the top-10 teams, it is also now 5-2 in the SEC with a win against Texas under its belt. The Tigers might not be 100-point-per-game monsters like when the competition was non-conference Quad 4 matchup after non-conference Quad 4 matchup, but they are more than holding their own against Quad 1 teams now, and have rattled off four wins in a row in those conditions.
4. South Carolina (previous: 4)
South Carolina will be an excellent test for LSU, in fact, but there’s still a few weeks left before we’re all able to enjoy that matchup. Losing to a reeling Oklahoma team in overtime basically killed the Gamecocks’ chances of moving up in NET this week, but stopping Vandy in its tracks while dropping over 100 points on them at least allowed them to run in place.
3. Texas (previous: 3)
Texas actually didn’t play last week — South Carolina really did miss a chance to jump ahead — but will take on Florida and then No. 10 Oklahoma before we check in on the Longhorns again.
2. UCLA (previous: 2)
Purdue is a bubble team, but you would not glean that much from watching UCLA toy with it. The Bruins won 96-48, and followed that beatdown up with an 80-46 win over Northwestern. UCLA has faced the third-toughest schedule of any women’s team in Division I college basketball, not just in the top 10, and it has gone from a steel-sharpens-steel situation to diamond slicing through whatever it touches.
1. UConn (previous: 1)
UConn followed up its biggest win (by margin of victory) over Notre Dame in the rivalry’s history with a return to Big East competition, and a 41-point win over Georgetown that was followed by a 40-point dub over Seton Hall, both on the road. While the Huskies have won 37-straight and remain the lone undefeated team in women’s Division I college basketball, that streak also dates back to last February, when they lost to Tennessee. Related: UConn takes on Tennessee this Sunday at noon ET, live on FOX and the FOX Sports app.
Risers and Fallers
In the span of a week, some teams can see their spot in the rankings dramatically shift. Here are the five teams that rose the most in women’s college basketball in the last week…
5. Wyoming, 280 to 260: Wyoming had just five wins all season entering this week — including one against a Division II school — but boosted that total with a pair of Ws. The Cowgirls took down Utah State… twice.
4. Drexel, 186 to 165: Drexel defeated Stony Brook, 49-41, then Towson with a more commanding 68-45. Neither was well-rated, but had enough going for them to give the Dragons a boost.
3. Denver, 306 to 285: Denver beat Kansas City by 10 and then Oral Roberts by 12, with the second of those being the far more impressive showing given the Golden Eagles were about 150 spots ahead of Denver in NET.
2. Navy, 149 to 126: Navy won against Holy Cross Army, and now finds itself basically right behind the latter in the NET rankings.
Even slowing Lauren Betts and UCLA has proven difficult this season. (Photo by Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images)
1. East Carolina, 139 to 116: A huge win, and on the road, against UAB powered East Carolina’s rise this week — it’s the only game the Pirates played, but they made it count by winning 87-61 against a team that was ranked comparably before the matchup.
…and the five that fell the furthest.
5. Southern Mississippi, 163 to 186: A 9-point loss to Marshall wasn’t so bad, considering that was a nearly top-100 team, but then losing to Coastal Carolina 81-55 was bad news.
4. Dartmouth, 274 to 298: Dartmouth got absolutely smoked by Columbia, 89-32. The Lions are a bubble team, so a loss to them isn’t surprising given Dartmouth’s own standing, but Big Green gave up big points here even with that in mind.
3. Hampton, 278 to 303: Hampton was on the wrong side of the results against both Campbell and Elon, with the latter besting them by 26 points. It’s not like Elon is a high-ranking team, either: even after that W, it’s 229th.
2. UAB, 154 to 183: Before getting crushed by East Carolina at home, UAB also dropped a game to North Texas. Not an unexpected result, but in conjunction with the East Carolina defeat and the fact that the Mean Green win was also a home game for UAB… well, you see the numbers.
1. Albany, 137 to 168: Consecutive losses to Maine and New Hampshire had Albany taking a bigger fall than anyone this week. While Maine was ranked 175th (and is now 159) and has a conference star in senior Adrianna Smith to contend with, UNH was barely a top-300 team. To make matters worse, both of these losses were home games for Albany.
On the Bubble
Of the 68 March Madness teams in the tournament, 31 of them are conference champions who receive automatic entry into the tournament. The other 37 spots are at-large bids. With that in mind, we will look at the teams ranked between 64-to-73 in NET each week, as those are the ones who are the most on the bubble for the tourney.
73. Ball State (previous: 71): Ball State won against UMass, 78-60, but then lost to Miami (OH) by 20 points on Saturday. The result basically splits the difference, but the Cardinals need to do better than that to attract at-large attention in March, should they fail to win the MAC championship.
72. Georgetown (previous: 73): Georgetown lost to UConn by 41 points and didn’t shift off of its NET position at all, if you need further proof of the Huskies’ top dog status. A win against Xavier in the followup gave the Hoyas a slight boost.
71. Georgia Southern (previous: 80): An 80-69 win over Troy and a 69-48 victory over South Alabama moved the Eagles into the bubble.
70. George Mason (previous: 69): George Mason moved down a spot despite a win against St. Bonaventure, partially because said W should have had a higher margin of victory considering the gap in NET between the two, but also because George Mason played just one game this week.
69. Troy (previous: 63): Losing to Georgia Southern dropped Troy back from the bubble periphery [good] to the bubble periphery [bad], but taking care of business against Georgia State by dropping 96 points on it helped slow the descent.
Georgetown struggled against UConn, but rebounded facing Xavier. (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images)
68. Gonzaga (previous: 64): Just one game for Gonzaga, which the Bulldogs lost in overtime to Oregon State, 92-87. The Beavers are working their own way toward the bubble, but will need more dubs like that one to get there.
67. Auburn (previous: 65): Auburn hasn’t been able to build on its upset over ranked Alabama, but to be fair to the Tigers, they faced Vanderbilt and Oklahoma in the past week, so it’s not like the assignment was an easy one.
66. Rice (previous: 67): Wins against Tulsa and Tulane are better than losses, but the Owls need bigger wins in lieu of bigger opponents if they are to move up in NET faster than this.
65. Harvard (previous: 75): Harvard had just lost to a ranked Princeton team in overtime last check-in, and followed that with an 84-38 beatdown of Cornell. Now, Cornell is one of the worst teams in women’s D-I basketball, but Harvard made sure to remind everyone of as much with that score.
64. Santa Clara (previous: 66): Santa Clara played just one game last week as well, but like with Harvard, the Broncos made it count. Santa Clara defeated Seattle, 93-59, and moved up a couple of spots in the rankings for its trouble.
