The first NET rankings are out. As always, don’t overreact to them, because they’re meaningless this early.
Last year, the NCAA switches ranking systems it uses to help determine which teams make the college basketball tournament. The NCAA switched from the somewhat-flawed RPI to the still-somewhat-flawed NET. Supposedly, the switch to NET was to make things simpler (in terms of breakdowns of value of wins) and to fix some of the RPI’s flaws. Whether it actually does that (in my opinion, it doesn’t) is a post for another time.
Instead, I’m going to point out that the NCAA does itself a huge disservice by releasing the first rankings this early in the season. This is a computer formula and teams have only played about ten games, so things are incredibly volatile. A few wins or losses could move a team from Quadrant 1 to 4 or vice versa.
Now, Ohio State comes in at No. 1 in the initial rankings. Which is well-deserved, so far. But “so far” is only a tiny fraction of the season. That can change, rapidly. It won’t change if the Buckeyes continue to play well (the dud against Minnesota notwithstanding), but the difference between being No. 1 or No. 30 right now is still tiny.
I was going to say to ignore these rankings no matter where the Buckeyes came in. Had they been No. 30, the story would have been exactly the same. It’s fun that Ohio State is No. 1, but it’s still meaningless for now. When the rankings are less volatile in early February, that will be the time to take them seriously.
