3/29 Oracle/ITA Men’s Rankings Release – Top 7 Profiles

North Carolina retained its top spot but TCU and Virginia swapped spots at No. 2 and No. 3. If TCU’s win over Texas A&M would have counted in these rankings the Horned Frogs would have been the new No. 1. Ohio State is still at No. 4 while UCLA moves up to No. 5 after the previous No. 5 Oklahoma State was upset by SMU.

Wake Forest moved up seven spots to No. 6 after picking up a road win at Florida State while Georgia moved up four spots to No. 7 after beating Kentucky. Oklahoma State dropped three spots to No. 8 after losing to SMU while USC dropped one spot to No. 9 after losing at Washington. Texas A&M falls three spots to No. 10 after losing at Vanderbilt.

This set of rankings used each team’s seven best wins and all losses while next week’s rankings will use each’s eight best wins.

Rice, Georgia State, Utah State, and William & Mary were the biggest upward movers last week. Rice rose 14 spots to No. 26 after beating Texas Tech, Drake, and William & Mary. Georgia State came up 12 spots to No. 52 after going 3-0 at the MT Shootout which included wins over Middle Tennessee State, UAB, and South Alabama. Utah State moved up 12 spots to No. 58 after winning at BYU while William & Mary also came up 12 spots to No. 62 after defeating Drake.

Oregon, New Mexico, and Ole Miss had the biggest drops. Oregon dropped 13 spots to No. 39 after losing a pair of 4-3 heartbreakers to Drake and USC plus it went down to UCLA. New Mexico dropped 10 spots to No. 70 after losing to unranked UNLV. Ole Miss dropped 9 spots to No. 37 after losing to Florida and Arkansas.

The following teams moved up at least 7 spots versus the last rankings – movement in ( ):
#6 Wake Forest (+7)
#14 Arkansas (+7)
#26 Rice (+14)
#27 SMU (+9)
#29 Washington (+10)
#30 Wisconsin (+7)
#36 Stanford (+7)
#50 Old Dominion (+12)
#52 Georgia State (+14)
#58 Utah State (+12)
#62 William & Mary (+12)

The following teams dropped down at least 7 spots versus the last rankings (still ranked):
#33 Penn State (-8)
#37 Ole Miss (-9)
#38 Baylor (-8)
#39 Oregon (-13)
#42 NC State (-8)
#66 BYU (-7)
#70 New Mexico (-10)

These 4 teams entered the rankings after being unranked and here is why they are now ranked
#68 Loyola Marymount – beat UC Santa Barbara and picked up a ranked road win over Utah State
#69 Boise State – picked up ranked road wins over UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly
#74 UAB – won at Middle Tennessee State and also beat South Alabama (ranked 96-105)
#75 Duke – beat Louisville (ranked between 86-95) over the weekend and previous win at Miami was upgraded when Miami jumped into the rankings last week.

These 4 teams dropped out of the rankings with last week’s rankings in ( ):
Utah (61) – lost to Cal and Stanford plus its ranked win over Penn was downgraded when the Quakers dropped 8 spots last week. Utah will re-enter the rankings next week with both LMU and Boise coming in this week – Utah beat them both.
Nebraska (71) – lost to New Mexico plus its ranked wins over Iowa and Lamar were downgraded when those teams dropped by 4 and 11 spots respectively
Penn (73) – was idle last week but its three ranked wins (Dartmouth/MTSU/New Mexico) all dropped in the rankings plus Penn only has five total wins and these rankings used each team’s seven best wins
Western Michigan (75) – was idle last week but its ranked win over Purdue was downgraded when the Boilers dropped eight spots last week – that was enough to drop them out.

Interesting Notes:

• Rice would have been No. 27 instead of No. 26 but it’s loss to Texas A&M from a week ago still hadn’t been keyed into the computer as of the deadline 
• Pepperdine would have been No. 53 instead of No. 54 but it’s Sunday win over North Florida didn’t count towards its total due to a clerical error.
• Illinois would have had a higher point total but its win over Purdue wasn’t keyed into the computer prior to the 5pm ET Monday deadline – would have still been ranked No. 15 regardless.
• It is the home team’s responsibility to key a result into the computer regardless of who won. 

Here is the ITA’s release which breaks down the rankings by conference affiliation.

Below I’ll breakdown the team Top 7 looking at the 7 best wins that were used in the rankings this week along with other quality ranked wins. I also listed the point totals gained from the best wins and losses to come up with the computer score.  

North Carolina remains at after defeating Clemson and Virginia Tech.  

TCU moves up to No. 2 after knocking off Northwestern. As I mentioned above TCU’s Monday night win over Texas A&M won’t be factored in until next week. 

• 7 Best Wins (534.2): #5 Oklahoma State, #8 USC, #10 Illinois (2X +1 on road), #12 Northwestern, at #17 South Florida, #27 Tulsa
• Other Quality Wins: #10 Texas A&M, #29 Columbia, at #37 Wisconsin, #42 Dartmouth, #43 Stanford
• Losses (7.4): #2 Virginia, #15 California
• Computer Score:  534.2/7.4 = 72.19 (was 69.88)
• What’s Coming Up: Rice/UT Arlington (4/1), Oklahoma (4/8), Oklahoma State (4/10)
• Comments: TCU has played a tough schedule over the last few weeks but it’ll be a tad easier this weekend though it can’t overlook a Rice team that just stunned Texas Tech. 

Virginia falls back to No. 3 despite rolling over Notre Dame and Boston College last weekend. 

• 7 Best Wins (512.5): #3 TCU, #6 UCLA, #13 Wake Forest, #14 Oklahoma, #18 Kentucky, #20 Florida State, #27 Tulsa
• Other Quality Wins: #34 NC State, #31 San Diego, #45 Virginia Tech, #46 Notre Dame
• Losses (7.3): #1 North Carolina, #10 Illinois
• Computer Score:  512.5/7.3 = 70.21 (was 71.41)
• What’s Coming Up: at North Carolina (4/1), at Duke (4/3), at Florida (4/6), at Georgia Tech (4/8), at Clemson (4/10)
• Comments:  Virginia has a chance to move up to No. 2 or possibly even No. 1 if it can win at North Carolina on Friday. 

• 7 Best Wins (460.1): #8 USC, #9 Texas Tech, #14 Oklahoma (2X + 1 on road), at #20 Florida State, #32 Georgia Tech, #46 Notre Dame
• Other Quality Wins: #52 Auburn, at #64 Miami, #65 South Carolina
• Losses (8.3): #2 Virginia, #5 Oklahoma State, #19 Texas, #34 NC State
• Computer Score:  460.1/8.3 = 55.43 (was 51.04)
• What’s Coming Up: at Virginia Tech (4/1), at North Carolina (4/3), Duke (4/9), at Virginia (4/15)
• Comments: Several of Wake’s best wins took ranking hits this week so the Demon Deacons will need to keep winning to avoid falling. Wake has two big road matches this weekend against VT and UNC and if UNC doesn’t have everyone healthy then I wouldn’t be surprised to see the upset. 

• 7 Best Wins (409): #4 Ohio State, #18 Kentucky, #24 Mississippi State, #29 Columbia, #32 Georgia Tech, #33 Memphis, #41 Alabama
• Other Quality Wins: at #49 Vanderbilt, #51 UC Santa Barbara, #57 East Tennessee State, at #65 South Carolina 
• Losses (7.6): #6 UCLA (2X), #9 Texas Tech
• Computer Score:  409/7.6 = 53.82 (was 52.97)
• What’s Coming Up: at Texas A&M (4/1), at LSU (4/3), Florida (4/8), Auburn (4/10), at Arkansas (4/15), at Ole Miss (4/17)
• Comments: Georgia has a tough next three weeks coming up with road trips to Texas A&M, LSU, Arkansas, and Ole Miss while Florida comes to Athens. Georgia has a chance to move into the top 5 if it can take care of business but winning away from home is never an easy task. Texas A&M has been a little banged up but they are still extremely tough at home. 

3/29 Oracle/ITA Men’s Rankings

Rank	Avg	School	Previous Rank
1	77.3	North Carolina	1
2	72.19	TCU	3
3	70.21	University of Virginia	2
4	68.3	Ohio State University	4
5	66.61	UCLA	6
6	55.43	Wake Forest University	13
7	53.82	University of Georgia	11
8	52.95	Oklahoma State University	5
9	52.3	University of Southern California	8
10	51.99	Texas A&M University	7
11	50.99	University of Florida	16
12	50.22	Texas Tech University	9
13	48.93	Northwestern University	12
14	47.4	University of Arkansas	21
15	44.89	University of Illinois	10
16	44.11	California	15
17	43.67	University of South Florida	17
18	43.21	University of Oklahoma	14
19	40.08	University of Kentucky	18
20	37.47	University of Michigan	23
21	36.71	University of Texas	19
22	35.24	Florida State University	20
23	31.99	Tulane University	22
24	30.3	University of Tulsa	27
25	29.44	Mississippi State University	24
26	29.02	Rice University	40
27	28.52	SMU	36
28	26.49	Columbia University	29
29	25.24	University of Washington	39
30	23.72	University of Wisconsin	37
31	23.63	Georgia Tech	32
32	23.4	University of San Diego	31
33	23.34	Penn State University	25
34	21.99	Princeton University	35
35	21.87	University of Memphis	33
36	21.66	Stanford University	43
37	21.17	University of Mississippi	28
38	20.85	Baylor University	30
39	20.55	University of Oregon	26
40	20.35	Dartmouth College	42
41	20.14	University of Alabama	41
42	20.1	North Carolina State	34
43	18.37	Vanderbilt University	49
44	17.92	LSU	48
45	17.04	Virginia Tech	45
46	16.82	Drake University	44
47	16.39	Harvard University	50
48	15.97	University of Denver	47
49	15.1	UC Santa Barbara	51
50	14.9	Old Dominion University	38
51	13.85	University of Notre Dame	46
52	12.82	Georgia State University	66
53	12.27	Purdue University	54
54	11.12	Pepperdine	53
55	11.04	Auburn University	52
56	10.76	Cornell University	55
57	10.5	East Tennessee State University	57
58	10.31	Utah State University	70
59	9.98	University of South Carolina	65
60	9.88	University of Iowa	56
61	9.71	St. John’s University	58
62	9.6	College of William and Mary	74
63	9.38	UNC Wilmington	63
64	8.97	Middle Tennessee State University	62
65	8.92	UC Davis	69
66	8.7	Brigham Young University	59
67	8.3	University of Miami (Florida)	64
68	8.23	Loyola Marymount University	NR
69	8.19	Boise State University	NR
70	7.85	University of New Mexico	60
71	7.6	Lamar University	72
72	7.59	University of the Pacific (California)	68
73	7.08	Cal Poly	67
74	6.98	UAB	NR
75	6.94	Duke University	NR