2025-26 NET rankings thread

Styre said:

NU's first undefeated week in conference play gives them another Quad 1 win and bumps them up to #72.

OVERALL: 13-16 (5-13 B1G)

QUAD 1 (2-10)
H #2 Michigan - L
H #5 Illinois - L
A #5 Illinois - L
A #11 Michigan State - L
H #12 Nebraska - L
A #12 Nebraska - L
N #14 Virginia - L
A #28 Iowa - L
A #32 Wisconsin - L
A #39 UCLA - L
A #41 Indiana - W
A #63 USC - W

QUAD 2 (1-5)
H #34 Ohio State - L
H #61 Washington - L
H #68 Minnesota - L
N #80 Butler - L
N #84 Oklahoma State - L
A #97 DePaul - W

QUAD 3 (5-1)
H #107 Oregon - W
N #108 South Carolina - W
H #125 Penn State - W
H #146 Maryland - W
H #155 Valparaiso - W
A #158 Rutgers - L

QUAD 4 (5-0)
H #202 Howard - W
H #265 Boston University - W
H #278 Mercyhurst - W
H #316 Cleveland State - W
H #351 Jackson State - W

The final week of the regular season features a Quad 1 home game against #9 Purdue and a Quad 1 road game at #68 Minnesota.

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Does 72 get us into the NIT/Crown post-season tournaments??

Styre said:

It does not, unless teams ahead of us decline bids.

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From what I'm seeing we're currently 12th in the B1G in NET. Assuming 9 make the tournament and the NIT has 1 auto bid and Crown has 2 that suggests we'd at least get an invite to one of these if we stay ahead of Minnesota and USC. Although I see the Crown downsized from 16 to 8 so maybe there aren't the 2 auto bids this time for the B1G.

Styre said:

I forgot about the NIT exempt bid! The Crown still has two auto bids for the B1G, yes.

As I recall, the Crown uses NET ratings. A lot depends on whether Indiana makes the tournament, but we know 9 teams are in for sure.

37-Indiana
61-Washington
70-Northwestern
74-Minnesota
78-USC

If Indiana doesn't make the NCAAs, they'll get the first Crown invite along with Washington. If they do make the tournament, it'll be Washington and then hopefully NU. The next-best team then gets offered the NIT bid, but the NIT uses an average of 12 computer ranking systems so we have no idea where NU ranks relative to Minnesota or USC.

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I genuinely hope NU makes the crown. Go cash some checks boys.

So the Crown teams will be:

Top 2 Big 12: Likely Cincinnati and either Baylor or UCF
Top 2 Big 10: Likely Indiana and Washington, NU if Indiana somehow makes the tourney
Top 2 Big East: Likely Seton Hall and one of Creighton/Butler/Providence
2 At-Large: My guess would be some combination of New Mexico, San Diego State, Boise State, Baylor/UCF and West Virginia

NIT criteria:

Top 2 ACC: Likely NC State and SMU, maybe Virginia Tech or Stanford depending on the bubble
Top 2 SEC: Likely two of Missouri, Texas, Auburn and Oklahoma
1 team from the top 12 conferences -
SEC: One of Missouri/Texas/Auburn/Oklahoma that doesn't qualify for previous criteria
Big 12: One of the Baylor/UCF/West Virginia trio that gets left out of the Crown, or Arizona State
Big 10: USC or Minnesota
ACC: Whichever of Virginia Tech and Stanford don't qualify for previous criteria
Big East: One of the Creighton/Butler/Providence trio that doesn't make the Crown
Mountain West: One of the New Mexico/SDSU/Boise teams not selected for the Crown
Atlantic 10: Likely Dayton or George Mason
West Coast: Seattle
Missouri Valley: Belmont
American: Whichever of South Florida or Tulsa loses in their conference tourney
Big West: Whichever of UC Irvine or Hawaii loses in their conference tourney
WAC: Whichever of Utah Valley or Cal Baptist loses their conference tourney
Eligible regular season conference champs with average above 125 in 7 rating criteria: UC Irvine, Liberty, UNC Wilmington, Stephen F. Austin, Utah Valley, Yale, South Florida
Minimum 9 other teams chosen by committee: McNeese State, Tulsa, Akron, Oklahoma State, California, Florida State, Wake Forest, Nevada, Grand Canyon, Wichita State, Colorado

I think if we want postseason basketball, we root really hard for IU to make the tourney, because if we don't get the Crown spot, I don't think the NIT picks us based on their criteria. We would be the best of the remaining teams by predictive criteria, but we simply didn't win enough games to beat out Minnesota and USC. Obviously this all depends on who declines bids and what happens this week in the remaining conference tourneys.

CappyNU said:

I think if we want postseason basketball, we root really hard for IU to make the tourney,

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But if we win our first game, our second game will be against Indiana, and if we beat Indiana, that probably knocks them out of the NCAA Tourney. So does that mean our best shot at The Crown involves losing to Indiana? (I'm not so sure.)

So many Big Ten teams (six) snubbed The Crown last season and none of them played in the NIT. I'm not quite so down on our chances of receiving an invitation.

bringbacktherantboard said:

But if we win our first game, our second game will be against Indiana, and if we beat Indiana, that probably knocks them out of the NCAA Tourney. So does that mean our best shot at The Crown involves losing to Indiana? (I'm not so sure.)

So many Big Ten teams (six) snubbed The Crown last season and none of them played in the NIT. I'm not quite so down on our chances of receiving an invitation.

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lol, it 100% absolutely does mean that, yes, sports are weird.

IU is the single bubbliest bubble team in America right now. They’re the last team in on bracket matrix, getting the spot in 55/109 brackets. They’re beating the field for the last spot by a Bush-Gore single vote margin. They are living life on the absolute edge.

I hate to Debbie Downer this, and it's always fun to pretend, and I'd LOVE to be wrong .... I just don't see us playing beyond this run. They're investing a lot into it emotionally and this IS their tournament run. I think they're healthier overall than last year, which was a different kind of drain ..... but I just don't see it happening, even if they want us, which is still presuming an awful lot given we're solidly under .500

olsh said:

I hate to Debbie Downer this, and it's always fun to pretend, and I'd LOVE to be wrong .... I just don't see us playing beyond this run. They're investing a lot into it emotionally and this IS their tournament run. I think they're healthier overall than last year, which was a different kind of drain ..... but I just don't see it happening, even if they want us, which is still presuming an awful lot given we're solidly under .500

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Last year made sense. We had two key guys out for the year, the team was really worn down. This year we have plenty of bodies, we shouldn’t be any more worn out than any other team at this point and I don’t think it’s good to keep turning down opportunities if they arise. So if an invite does come, I hope they play. Look how Nebraska built off what they did last year. But I sense it will come down to what Nick wants to do and I’d respect it if he wants to move on.

Minnesota's loss and our win yesterday puts them behind us in the NIT pecking order. If we can beat Purdue today, we might leapfrog USC.

CappyNU said:

Minnesota's loss and our win yesterday puts them behind us in the NIT pecking order. If we can beat Purdue today, we might leapfrog USC

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Musselman (USC) said in an Athletic article today they are likely declining NIT/Crown. Medved (Minnesota) sounded lukewarm about it too but didn't rule it out.

We'll probably get clarity tonight as to whether the Cats would consider NIT or Crown. I wouldn't say it's impossible, but have no idea if we'd even be interested. NIT would be worth it if we got a bid, IMHO.

Secho99 said:

Musselman (USC) said in an Athletic article today they are likely declining NIT/Crown. Medved (Minnesota) sounded lukewarm about it too but didn't rule it out.

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I’d be surprised if Minnesota accepted any postseason invite. They are so beat up - down to six players in their rotation the last few games.

Secho99 said:

Look how Nebraska built off what they did last year.

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Yup. That's what I am thinking too.

Eurocat said:

Yup. That's what I am thinking too.

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How many of those guys were in this years Nebraska team?

Purple Pile Driver said:

How many of those guys were in this years Nebraska team?

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Three of their starters were on last year's team. A fourth starter, Jamarques Lawrence, is playing his third season for Nebraska but strangely took a one-year detour at Rhode Island last season.