The folks over at the NCAA are taking notice of Michigan State’s late-season surge.
The Michigan State men’s basketball team has moved up to No. 7 in the NCAA’s NET Rankings–the highest ranking of any Big Ten team.
The NET Rankings–or NCAA Evaluation Tool for those of you that despise brevity–are used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee to help sort out which teams should be ranked where. It uses a number of measure, including strength of schedule, victory margin, efficiencies, and location of games to create a more accurate ranking of college basketball teams. The NET Rankings are not the end-all be-all when it comes to the final rankings and determining seeds, but it does play a major factor.
Many of the most recent brackets have Michigan State either as a low three seed or high four seed, so it looks like the NET Rankings like the Spartans a little bit more than the bracketologists think the committee will. It will all become moot next Sunday–Selection Sunday–when the official bracket is revealed.
No. 16 Michigan State hosts No. 19 Ohio State Sunday (4:30 CBS) with a chance to win their third consecutive Big Ten title.
