College Basketball

Men's College Basketball Top 10, Bubble Team NET Rankings: U-M Still No. 1 After L

Updated Jan. 13, 2026 1:10 p.m. ET

The top 25 rankings are important for understanding just who is killing it in college basketball, but we can go deeper — all the way to the bubble and beyond.

The NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET, is a rankings system used in Division I basketball to help figure out which teams are going to participate in March Madness. As the NCAA puts it, NET "takes into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses," the latter of which is determined by placing every Division I matchup into different quadrants, ranked 1 through 4, with 1 being the strongest teams and 4 the weakest — Quads aren’t just determined by record, but also whether a game was played at home, on the road or at a neutral site.

Using NET, we can get a sense of which teams are the best at a given moment, as well as which ones are on the bubble for selection in March. While updated daily by the NCAA, we’ll track changes weekly.

With that, here are the top 10 men’s college basketball teams through Jan. 12, according to NET.

The Top 10

10. Illinois (previous: 10)

Illinois picked up two wins in the last week, one a Quad 1 victory unranked — but 20th in NET — Iowa, and the other a W against Rutgers, which conversely sits last in the Big Ten in NET. That was enough for the Fighting Illini to hold off the likes of undefeated Nebraska (once again 11th) and Houston (which jumped from 16th to 12th with a pair of impressive dubs).

9. BYU (previous: 9)

BYU dominated Arizona State, 104-76, but then had trouble against Utah, beating them 89-84. Utah was 144th in NET last week, but is now 131st after keeping it close against BYU. Which is also why the Cougars are running in place instead of moving up.

8. UConn (previous 8)

The nature of UConn’s Big East schedule this year, as explained by FOX Sports analyst Michale Cohen, is that it’s high risk and low reward. With the conference full of struggling teams, UConn isn’t going to get a huge boost from its wins — especially any close ones — but it could be punished severely for a loss to the wrong team. There’s a reason the Huskies have camped out in the 8th spot during conference play so far, but even with that NET still has them as having tackled the 17th-toughest schedule in all of Division I so far, and 4th-toughest in the top 10.

7. Vanderbilt (previous: 5)

Vanderbilt remains undefeated after toppling ranked Alabama and then LSU in its two games the past week, but still slipped back a couple of spots in NET, anyway, even as its average opponent NET rank shot up. That has more to do with the same kind of jump happening to Duke — which leapfrogged the Commodores this week — than anything Vandy did wrong.

Vandy won twice this week but still fell in the NET rankings. (Photo by Carly Mackler/Getty Images)

6. Purdue (previous: 6)

Maybe Penn State is a little better than it’s gotten credit for to this point, since it nearly brought Michigan to its first loss before Wisconsin actually did the deed, and then followed that up by losing to Purdue by all of 8 points. The Boilermakers probably would have been hit harder in NET by this close win if not for the Nittany Lions making life difficult for the Wolverines right before that matchup.

5. Gonzaga (previous: 4)

Gonzaga is looking like a high-quality team again after a concerning stretch against West Coast Conference opponents, but it’s going to be difficult for them to jump ahead of the ACC, Big 12 and Big Ten teams in front of them in NET while facing WCC opponents, so long as those teams keep rolling the competition as has happened so far.

4. Duke (previous: 7)

Duke slipped after losses to ranked Texas Tech and then a concerningly close W against Florida State, but in the past week defeated ranked Louisville by 11 and then helped knock SMU out of the poll with an 82-75 weekend dub. The Blue Devils have played the fifth-toughest schedule of the top 10 teams to this point.

3. Iowa State (previous: 3)

Iowa State has the weakest schedule of anyone in the top 10, but it also got much more difficult in the past week. Last time out, its average opponent NET ranking was 168th in D-I, but after taking on — and defeating — Baylor and Oklahoma State, that ranking now sits at 100th. That figure is only going to keep climbing as the Cyclones tear through the Big 12.

2. Arizona (previous: 2)

Arizona routed Kansas State, 101-76, then followed that up with a win over TCU. Like its Big 12 cousins, the Wildcats have seen their average opponent ranking climb during conference play, but still not by enough to catch a Michigan team that saw its first loss of the season. Not yet.

1. Michigan (previous: 1)

Michigan lost to Wisconsin, yes, but the Badgers are 40th in NET despite their 11-5 record. The Big Ten is brutal, and Wisconsin has already played six Quad 1 games and won just the one of them — against the Wolverines. Michigan, though, has played the second-toughest schedule of not just the top-10 teams, but of any Division I squad — it will take more than one L to knock them off this perch, especially one against a tourney-caliber team.

Risers and Fallers

In the span of a week, some teams can see their spot in the rankings dramatically shift. Here are the five teams that rose the most in men’s college basketball in the last week…

T5. UIC, 234 to 200: UIC took down Southern Illinois and Illinois State in the past week, and the latter was a top-60 team before this shocking upset knocked them way out of bubble territory. Losing a Quad 4 matchup does not reflect well on a résumé!

T5. Cal State Fullerton, 228 to 194: Cal State Fullerton upset UC San Diego, which ranked 79th in NET before this defeat shot them out of the bubble. Big news for the Titans, terrible tidings for the Tritons.

3. Boston University, 292 to 256: It wasn’t the quality of the opponents so much as how well the Terriers beat them: Boston University toppled Lafayette, 83-67, then dropped 100 points on Army. That put some distance between BU and the bottom tier of NET, but also banished the vanquished further down the list.

Both Boston University and Harvard made moves in the right direction this week. (Photo by M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

2. Harvard, 215 to 168: Harvard played just one game in the past week, but it was a 79-54 blowout of Columbia. Considering Columbia was a top-100 team before the matchup — emphasis on "was" — the Crimson got a serious boost from the W.

1. Drexel, 297 to 247: Drexel took out Stony Brook with ease, 56-37, then defeated William & Mary, 64-58. That second one was a shocker, as Drexel was one of the 60 or so worst teams out there, while the Tribe were top-100. Not anymore, in either case.

…and the five that fell the furthest.

5. Boise State, 45 to 79: A terrible week for Boise State, which has seen its fortunes change in Mountain West play. First, defeat at the hands of Grand Canyon — which was 118th in NET — and then now-No. 23 Utah State crushed them, 93-68. Boise State is just 1-4 in conference play after three consecutive losses to open the new year.

4. West Georgia, 257 to 292: Losing to Jacksonville hurt. Losing to Jacksonville by 28 points hurt even worse.

3. Cornell, 155 to 191: Dartmouth dropped 102 points on Cornell, and while it lost by just 11, the Big Red weren’t supposed to lose to Big Green by any amount of points.

2. Lindenwood, 195 to 242: A close loss to SIUE and and then an 82-74 defeat against Little Rock — both among the 100-worst teams in NET — sent Lindenwood back nearly that far itself.

1. Wagner, 258 to 311: Saint Francis was ranked 361 this time last week, out of 365 teams. Mercyhurst was 315th. Wagner lost to both in the span of a week, and while it was by a combined 3 points, those were the games the Seahawks were supposed to win.

On the Bubble

Of the 68 March Madness teams in the tournament, 31 of them are conference champions who receive automatic entry into the tournament. The other 37 spots are at-large bids. With that in mind, we will look at the teams ranked between 64-to-73 in NET each week, as those are the ones who are the most on the bubble for the tourney.

73. Kansas State (previous: 65): Arizona showing how far the gap is between the bubble and the top did a number on K-State, but not by enough to force them out of it entirely.

72. Stanford (previous: 75): A slight bump thanks to a win against Virginia Tech — a top-60 team — balanced against a 15-point loss to ranked Virginia.

71. California (previous: 59): The Golden Bears fell pretty hard in NET, as California lost 84-60 to now-No. 16 Virginia, and came out on the wrong side of its own Virginia Tech matchup.

An upset against Kansas propelled West Virginia right into the bubble. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

70. West Virginia (previous: 89): A win against Cincinnati followed by a surprise upset over Kansas — West Virginia won by 11, even — shot the Mountaineers right into bubble territory.

69. Colorado (previous: 70): Beating Utah was somewhat expected, but losing to ranked Texas Tech by just 2 points? That’s the kind of defeat a team on the bubble will take before March.

68. George Mason (previous: 77): The Patriots spent their week defeating Fordham (a team George Mason absolutely has to beat every time) and VCU, with much of this jump in ranking coming from the latter.

67. Syracuse (previous: 90): Two good wins in a week, one against Georgia Tech and the other against Pittsburgh. That was enough to propel the Orange forward.

66. San Diego State (previous: 69): San Diego State moved up a few spots courtesy a 73-68 win over Nevada — which sat in the bubble right around here a week ago — and a win against Fresno State.

65. Oklahoma (previous: 48): A bad week for the Sooners — defeats against Mississippi State and Texas A&M — could very well get worse on Tuesday, as a resurgent Florida is Oklahoma’s next opponent.

64. George Washington (previous: 66): George Washington lost to Dayton, but then made up for it by crushing Loyola Chicago, 101-66. The Revolutionaries will have to play a bit better against tougher competition to move up further than this — they are 0-2 in Quad 1 matchups, 2-2 in Quad 2, and even lost a Quad 4 game.

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