WATCH: NET rankings – what does it all mean?

NET rankings stands for ‘NCAA Evaluation Tool’ – for women’s basketball, it is a sorting tool used to measure a team’s quality and helps evaluate team resumes for selection and seeing in the NCAA tournament. The days when we relied on RPI, which was a formula based on winning percentage, is over. A team’s NET ranking is determined by who you played, where you played, how efficiently you played and your results. NET rankings are formulated by two components – one that is data-driven, measuring a team’s overall performance during the regular season. And one that is results-driven, which ranks teams higher that played and beat other good teams.  

But NET ranking is just one of 14 criteria that the NCAA women’s selection committee uses to evaluate teams and set the tournament field. Ultimately a team’s NET ranking is based on wins over losses, who you play, where you play and how strong your schedule and conference is at the end of the year.

Why do we have the first rankings out in December? Because the first month of the season is behind us and there is data to create this list. Things of note to keep an eye on: how the mid-major teams stack up in the top 20 (Missouri State is currently in at #19), the ACC currently has four teams in the top 20 with North Carolina at #2 and Nebraska (10-0) is in at #4, just one of three Big Ten teams in the top 20. The rankings are now published and will change daily so do not worry if your team comes in lower than expected – it is how you finish in March that matters.