The ITA released its first set of computerized team rankings today and as expected there was a lot of movement with many relative unknowns making big moves. Up until this point the rankings have been done by a ranking committee with each member able to use logic and reason when filling out a ballot but when the computers take over it’s strictly math. In this week’s rankings the computer ranked teams based off their four best wins with all losses also included in the equation. The teams that had racked up a lot of wins with very few losses were rewarded while the ones that haven’t played much were penalized. With each passing week more best wins are added to the equation so as that number increases the rankings become credible. Next week the number rises to five and by NCAA Tournament selection time it’s up to nine so trust me it will work itself out.
Anyone with enough free time can calculate the rankings (to an extent) using the ITA’s formula though I don’t recommend it unless you just have a lot of free time or have a computer program that generates it for you. For a match to count it has to be entered into the ITA’s system by the 5 p.m. ET Monday deadline; if it’s not entered on time in goes in the following week. Road wins are given a 10% bonus so beating the 65th ranked team on the road would get your more points than beating the 64th ranked team at home.
The top 15 looks about the way it should with all those teams having picked up multiple ranked wins. The first surprise in the ranking is South Carolina at No. 16 though the Gamecocks are off to their best start since 2004 with quality wins over Old Dominion, NC State, Dartmouth, and Georgia State.
A few teams earned all-time program best rankings with Georgia State coming in at No. 30 (37) and Cal Poly at No. 33 (44). Cornell at No. 24 is just one spot off its previous high, South Alabama came in at No. 28, which I believe is its best since 2007, after recent wins over Auburn, Georgia State, and North Florida. Central Florida came in at No. 48 which was one off its previous high of No. 47 which occurred back in 2002.
Ole Miss, TCU, and Texas A&M, which were No. 23, 24, & 25 two weeks ago, fell completely out of the rankings due to its lack of wins. Ole Miss has only played four matches so far going 2-2, Texas A&M is 3-3, and TCU is 3-3.
| MEN’S TOP 50 | ||||
| Rank | School | Prv Rank | Chg | |
| 1 | 86.50 | University of Virginia | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 80.24 | Ohio State University | 3 | 1 |
| 3 | 80.22 | Wake Forest University | 2 | -1 |
| 4 | 69.90 | North Carolina | 5 | 1 |
| 5 | 68.33 | University of Oklahoma | 14 | 9 |
| 6 | 62.93 | California | 4 | -2 |
| 7 | 56.08 | University of Texas | 11 | 4 |
| 8 | 55.23 | Oklahoma State University | 12 | 4 |
| 9 | 53.71 | University of Michigan | 18 | 9 |
| 10 | 52.05 | University of Florida | 6 | -4 |
| 11 | 46.93 | Baylor University | 13 | 2 |
| 12 | 45.65 | University of Southern Cal | 9 | -3 |
| 13 | 45.04 | Northwestern University | T7 | -6 |
| 14 | 43.83 | Georgia Tech | 22 | 8 |
| 15 | 43.67 | UCLA | T7 | -8 |
| 16 | 38.33 | University of South Carolina | NR | – |
| 17 | 37.14 | University of Georgia | 10 | -7 |
| 18 | 32.95 | Columbia University | 19 | 1 |
| 19 | 32.77 | University of Illinois | 17 | -2 |
| 20 | 32.65 | Mississippi State University | 16 | -4 |
| 21 | 31.87 | University of Kentucky | 15 | -6 |
| 22 | 30.05 | Tulane University | NR | – |
| 23 | 27.14 | University of Oregon | NR | – |
| 24 | 26.32 | Cornell University | NR | – |
| 25 | 23.52 | University of Minnesota | NR | – |
| 26 | 23.33 | Old Dominion University | NR | – |
| 27 | 22.71 | Vanderbilt University | NR | – |
| 28 | 22.62 | University of South Alabama | NR | – |
| 29 | 20.80 | SMU | 21 | -8 |
| 30 | 19.90 | Georgia State University | NR | – |
| 31 | 19.55 | University of Wisconsin | NR | – |
| 32 | 19.23 | University of Washington | NR | – |
| 33 | 18.09 | Cal Poly | NR | – |
| 34 | 17.10 | University of Tennessee | NR | – |
| 35 | 16.88 | Stanford University | 20 | -15 |
| 36 | 16.67 | Duke University | NR | – |
| 37 | 16.56 | Florida State University | NR | – |
| 38 | 15.43 | North Carolina State | NR | – |
| 39 | 14.91 | University of South Florida | NR | – |
| 40 | 14.33 | Pepperdine | NR | – |
| 41 | 13.73 | University of Tulsa | NR | – |
| 42 | 13.72 | Drake University | NR | – |
| 43 | 13.25 | Clemson University | NR | – |
| 44 | 12.92 | University of Memphis | NR | – |
| 45 | 12.63 | Indiana University-Bloom | NR | – |
| 46 | 12.48 | Rice University | NR | – |
| 47 | 12.04 | University of Arkansas | NR | – |
| 48 | 11.80 | University of Central Florida | NR | – |
| 49 | 11.78 | University of North Florida | NR | – |
| 50 | 11.76 | University of Alabama | NR | – |
I have a full breakdown of the singles and doubles rankings down below with a table that sorts them by school, conference, class, and Universal Tennis Rating. I also list who made the biggest gains week over week and who made the biggest declines. This content is available for my premium subscribers so if you haven’t signed up yet now is the time!
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There are co-number 1s this week with Ohio State’s Mikael Torpegaard and Wake Forest’s Petros Chrysochos sharing that honor. Ohio State junior Hugo Di Feo is No. 3, Mississippi State sophomore Nuno Borges is No. 4, and Arkansas senior Mike Redlicki is No. 5.
Men’s Singles Rankings (click to view in separate window)
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How is Iowa not ranked?
I thought they'd probably be in there too but once you really drill down who they've beaten you'll see why they aren't ranked. In year's past wins over Denver, Dartmouth, Texas Tech, and Western Michigan would be good wins, and they may get better as the season moves on, but right now those teams are down.
At best they have two or three wins over teams that are inside the top 100 but it's possible that all those teams are outside the top 100 too.
Wins
Denver 2-6 – ranked outside of top 100
Dartmouth 3-6 – probably at best in the 80-100 range
Nebraska-Omaha 3-5 – ranked outside top 100
Texas Tech 4-6 – at best 80-100 range with no real great wins
Creighton 3-5 – ranked outside of top 100
Western Michigan 5-5 – at best 80-100 range
Hey Bobby, I realize it's a complex formula but can you help explain how OSU doubles team DiFeo and Joyce dropped 31 places from No. 25 to 56 after their win over Ok State pair Gerch and Mendoza who rose 19 spots from no. 50 to 31?
To find the answer you have to actually go back two sets of rankings – they were ranked No. 25 in the 2/8 rankings based off ranked wins over then No. 57 Gustav Hansson/Tim Sandkaulen (Ole Miss) & then No. 45 Andre Goransson/Billy Griffith (Cal) however both of those teams fell out in the 2/8 rankings which were the basis for these 2/21 rankings. Even though they did add the win over No. 50 Gerch/Mendoza which replaced one of the two that fell out they still only had one ranked win now instead of two plus they also added an unranked loss to Bragusi/Ghilea so hence the drop.
So in summary what was a quality win two weeks ago may not be a quality win today – also goes the other way. How your opponents fare is a big variable in determining whether you go up or down.
How is Minnesota 25 in the country? They have not beaten any good teams plus they lost to NC state!!!
Only having one loss helped Minnesota and NC State is #38 now so they were probably close to that last week too meaning the loss didn't hurt much. There are still a lot of teams that don't have four wins and Minnesota had nine with three of them most likely over top 100 teams and two probably over teams inside the top 75.
Dartmouth – ranked 80-100 (win over Penn)
at Penn – ranked 51-80 (wins over Wisconsin & Harvard)
Oregon – ranked 26-50 (wins over Utah St, RIce, Cal Poly, Iowa)
Everyone else probably over 100.
So while their resume isn't that impressive relatively speaking it's better than most at this point in the season. As more wins are added in everything will fix itself.
Bobby, is Michigan for real this year? I can't really see this squad finishing the season in the top 10. I would put Florida, Baylor, Northwestern, USC, UCLA, Georgia, TCU, Illinois ahead of them. Do you agree?
I think Michigan is top 14-16 good but probably not quite top 10. Michigan gets both Illinois and Northwestern at home this year so I'd actually take Michigan in both of those matches. If Michigan and TCU played today I'd take Michigan too – I think they'd take doubles and three of the bottom four spots in singles.
I'll be interested to see how they do on the road at Cal next week