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3/1 Oracle/ITA Men’s Rankings Release

by | Mar 2, 2016 | Blog

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The second computer rankings of the year are out and as expected there was a lot of movement throughout the top 75. As I mentioned in the past it usually takes at least 3 weeks of computer rankings before things start to level out some but they really will come into better focus later in March when the number of countable wins climbs past five.

The top two stayed the same with North Carolina at #1 and Virginia at #2 while TCU jumped up to #3 off the strength of its ranked road wins over Illinois and Wisconsin. Oklahoma State came up from #9 to #5 due to its strong win over South Florida and Northwestern enters the top 10 at #9 due to it having five wins over ranked opponents.

The next two rankings will also use each team’s five best wins so I expect my predictions to become more accurate with each passing week.

In the past the rankings cut-off was Sunday so any matches that were played on Monday would go into the next set of rankings however this year they’ve changed the cut-off date to Monday. I wasn’t aware of that change so that’s why I had Oklahoma lower because I didn’t take into account its Monday win over #17 Memphis.

There were a couple of keying errors in the ITA’s results portal that threw my projections off as well. Baylor logged its home win over #17 Memphis as a road win so it got the extra road bonus. San Diego picked up a nice win on Saturday over then #65 San Diego State but the win got keyed into the system with a date of 3/26 instead of 2/27 and thus it wasn’t picked up for this set of rankings. Utah beat New Mexico State but keyed it in as a 7-0 loss and would have been #62 instead of #68 (whoops).

The following teams made double-digit increases versus the last rankings – movement in ( ):
#49 Alabama (27+)
#28 Old Dominion (27)
#51 UNC Wilmington (25+)
#52 St. John’s (24+)
#27 Arkansas (24)
#34 Georgia Tech (23)
#14 Baylor (20)
#60 William & Mary (16+)
#38 Princeton (14)
#44 BYU (14)
#56 Pacific (14)
#63 East Tennessee State (13+)
#15 Texas (11)
#30 Florida (11)
#33 Iowa (10)
#70 New Mexico, #72 Arizona, and #75 Cal Poly all increased but who knows how far down they were the previous week.

These 8 teams entered the rankings after being unranked and here is why they are now ranked

#49 Alabama – beat then #52 Princeton on Saturday plus past wins over Georgia State and North Florida increased in value with both moving into the rankings last week.
#51 UNC Wilmington – beat then #25 NC State on the road
#52 St. John’s – beat then #32 Harvard on the road
#60 William & Mary – win over Penn increased in value when it went from unranked to #59 plus the loss to Penn State was lessened when it went from #44 to #21
#63 East Tennessee State – wins over Penn and Portland increased in value when both entered the rankings last week plus loss to Washington was lessened due to them jumping from #48 to #31.
#70 New Mexico – beat then #53 Utah on Friday plus past win over UC Irvine increased in value when it went from unranked to #62
#72 Arizona – past losses to UCSB and Denver were lessened when each jumped up last week
#75 Cal Poly – past win over Portland increased in value when it went from unranked to #72.


The following teams made double-digit decreases versus the last rankings (still ranked):
#46 UC Santa Barbara (19)
#66 Auburn (18)
#40 NC State (15)
#68 Utah (15)
#45 Washington (14)
#47 Florida State (12)
#61 Middle Tennessee State (11)

These 8 teams dropped out of the rankings with last week’s rankings in ( ):
UC Davis (49)
SMU (60)
San Diego State (65)
Wichita State (71)
Portland (T72)
Santa Clara (T72)
South Alabama (74)
North Florida (75)

Rank Avg School Previous Rank
1 93.84 North Carolina 1
2 72.04 University of Virginia 2
3 66.76 TCU 8
4 65.69 Ohio State University 3
5 65.1 Oklahoma State University 9
6 64.1 UCLA 4
7 60.12 Wake Forest University 5
8 58.55 Texas A&M University 7
9 54.34 Northwestern University 15
10 53.98 Texas Tech University 6
11 52.2 University of Illinois 11
12 47.23 University of Southern California 13
13 45.06 University of Oklahoma 10
14 41.1 Baylor University 34
15 40.04 University of Texas 26
16 39.63 University of Georgia 16
17 39.17 University of South Florida 14
18 38.16 California 12
19 31.45 University of Michigan 28
20 31.32 University of Tulsa 22
21 30.88 University of Oregon 20
22 30.46 University of Kentucky 18
23 30.42 University of Memphis 17
24 27.88 Penn State University 21
25 25.86 Columbia University 23
26 25.79 University of Mississippi 19
27 25.51 University of Arkansas 51
28 23.54 Old Dominion University 55
29 22.93 Rice University 30
30 21.54 University of Florida 41
31 21.17 University of San Diego 24
32 20 LSU 37
33 18.84 University of Iowa 43
34 17.8 Georgia Tech 57
35 17.79 Tulane University 33
36 17.71 Drake University 44
37 17 Stanford University 29
38 16.85 Princeton University 52
39 16.61 Harvard University 32
40 16.45 North Carolina State 25
41 16.23 University of Notre Dame 47
42 15.94 Purdue University 39
43 15.77 Dartmouth College 38
44 15.35 Brigham Young University 58
45 15.13 University of Washington 31
46 14.46 UC Santa Barbara 27
47 13.97 Florida State University 35
48 13.63 University of Denver 40
49 12.67 University of Alabama NR
50 11.86 Mississippi State University 42
51 11.59 UNC Wilmington NR
52 11.53 St. John’s University NR
53 11.47 Virginia Tech 46
54 11.3 Vanderbilt University 45
55 10.65 University of Wisconsin 36
56 10.62 University of the Pacific (California) 70
57 9.1 Duke University 54
58 8.82 Indiana University-Bloomington 64
59 8.47 University of Pennsylvania 59
60 8.43 College of William and Mary NR
61 8.19 Middle Tennessee State University 50
62 7.9 Western Michigan University 69
63 7.88 East Tennessee State  NR
64 7.43 University of Tennessee 56
65 7.42 Cornell University 68
66 7.33 Auburn University 48
67 6.86 Georgia State University 63
68 6.8 University of Utah 53
69 6.57 UC Irvine 62
70 6.54 University of New Mexico NR
71 6.49 Boise State University 67
72 6.19 University of Arizona NR
73 6.12 University of South Carolina 61
74 5.93 Abilene Christian University 66
75 5.83 Cal Poly NR