The NCAA is using a new metric this year to quantify and measure college basketball teams strength throughout the season. The RPI is out the door, and the new NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) Rankings will be utilized as the replacement, despite the mystery surrounding the complete data points that go into it.
It’s not the end all to be all, but it is a significant separator when comparing teams and slotting them into the postseason.
We look at these NET Rankings on a weekly basis to see where the men’s basketball team is after each week’s games, and despite winning two games and not losing any since the last time we looked, the Buckeyes have fallen three spots to No. 38.
But that’s okay. Again, there isn’t any hard and fast line here. To illustrate this point, all we have to do is look at projections of where Ohio State is slotted when it comes to bracket projections. Most of those — if not all — have it off of the bubble and more solidly in the field.
In fact, Jerry Palm of CBS Sports has the Buckeyes moving up two lines since the past week — now in comfortably as a No. 7 seed. That’s anywhere from five to eleven spots better than they were last projection.
So, the morale of the story here is that generally speaking, you’ll continue to move up those NET Rankings with victories, but there’s other things that go into the mix. Other teams are winning and losing against variable competition, so it’s a complete body of work type of thing.
We’ll check back in on these next week.
