Florida basketball dipped out of the NCAA NET rankings top five on Wednesday following a one-point loss to Missouri at the O’Connell Center the night before.
The Gators held the No. 5 spot from Jan. 6 to 14 and dropped down to No. 7 after the Quadrant 1 loss. The Tigers are up to No. 27 in the NET thanks to the big road win but need to stay inside the top 30 to retain the Q1 classification. As the rankings stand, Florida’s 14 remaining games are a 9-4-1 split from Q1 to Q3.
The Gators remain the third-highest-rated team in the SEC. Auburn and Tennessee bookend the top four, and No. 9 Alabama is still inside the top 10 despite a home loss of its own. Duke and Houston are the new staples of the top three.
It’s important to remember that while they are called “rankings” the NET is an evaluation tool at heart — that’s what the E and T stand for. It’s not a hard list and is more of a sorting tool for the selection committee come bracket time.
“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.
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. As the rankings change, so do the quality of the wins.
For example, Florida’s win over Florida State was a Q1 victory at the time the game was played but spent most of the non-conference slate as a downgraded Q2 win. Now that FSU has stabilized and climbed back to No. 73 in the NET, the Seminoles are once again Q1 quality at home.
- 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
Florida’s win over No. 37 North Carolina took a nice step away from the downgrade threshold, which is No. 50, not No. 75 even though the game was played in the Tar Heel State. The Florida State game is a Q1 win this week but could do a back-and-forth on that threshold without cementing a spot further up the rankings.
All four of Florida’s conference games have been Q1 matchups, so a 2-2 record isn’t the worst thing to happen from a Selection Sunday perspective. (Florida vs. Q1: 4-2)
With Florida State moving up to Q1, Florida has just two matchups against Q2 opponents. No. 61 Arizona State and No. 88 Wake Forest are trending in opposite directions on the NET but aren’t quite nearing an intersection. With both games being neutral-site wins, neither is in danger of crossing the top-100 threshold. (Florida vs. Q2: 2-0)
It was a good week for non-Power Four college basketball teams from the state of Florida, which helped the Gators’ Q3 record. Both No. 159 Jacksonville and No. 164 South Florida (neutral site) moved into Q3 territory, joining No. 137 Virginia and No. 155 Wichita State (neutral site). (Florida vs. Q3: 4-0)
Florida’s win count against Quadrant 4 opponents has dwindled to five, and more could be on the way. All five wins have come at home for UF — Florida A&M (No. 352), Grambling (No. 326), North Florida (No. 224), Southern Illinois (No. 267) and Stetson (No. 351). Only one of those wins is within 100 spots of promotion to Q3, so things look set here for now. (Florida vs. Q4: 5-0)
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