With the first month of the college basketball season in the books, the NCAA NET rankings are now available, and the Florida Gators begin December ranked No. 6 overall following an 8-0 start.
“The 2024-25 men’s basketball season marks the seventh season of the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings, which replaced the RPI prior to the 2018-19 season as the primary sorting tool for evaluating teams,” according to the NCAA.
While Top 25 polls remain popular, it’s the NET rankings that are used by the NCAA Tournament committee to seed teams in March. The rankings rely on a quadrant system (below), where Quadrant 1 (Q1) wins and Q3/Q4 losses matter the most.
Breaking down Florida’s wins by Quadrant
Before going into Florida’s resume, it’s important to understand how the quadrants are divided. Where a game is played has as much to do with the quadrant as the quality of the opponent.
For example, Florida’s lone Q1 win this year is against Florida State. The Seminoles are ranked No. 67 in the NET, but playing the game in Tallahassee means it’s a Q1 matchup. Had the game taken place at home or at a neutral site, it would be a Q2 matchup.
It’s also important to recognize that quadrant records vary has the season progresses and the NET is updated. What is a Q1 win today might not be one tomorrow.
- Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75
- Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135
- Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240
- Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353
As mentioned above, the Florida State win is UF’s only Q1 matchup of the season, and it’s a borderline Q1 win at that. Florida also has just one Q2 matchup on the books, a neutral site victory over Wichita State (No. 93) on Friday at the ESPN Events Invitational.
The Gators have won both Q3 matchups this season, one against Wake Forest (No. 115) at the ESPN Events Invitational and the other against South Florida (No. 173) in a neutral-site season opener.
The bulk of Florida’s games have come against Q4 opponents at home, Florida A&M (No. 334), Grambling (No. 183), Jacksonville (No. 165) and Southern Illinois (No. 174).
Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.