Women's College Basketball

Women's College Basketball Top 10, Bubble Team NET Rankings: UofL Enters Top 10

Published Jan. 20, 2026 4:23 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 women’s college basketball teams through Jan. 19, according to NET.

The Top 10

10. TCU (previous: 9)

TCU had a very busy week, as it now has played in five Quad 1 matchups after having just two games designated as such last time out. While TCU beat (now ranked) West Virginia by a single point to pick up another Quad 1 dub, the Horned Frogs also lost to No. 12 Ohio State, 71-69 on Monday. UCF and Kansas will give TCU a little more room to breathe than those opponents, but the month ends against Texas Tech, and February is no easier.

9. Michigan State (previous: 7)

Michigan State defeated Nebraska in a ranked-ranked matchup, but then followed that with a loss to Iowa in another one. While the poll has the Hawkeyes ahead of the Spartans, NET sees things differently and has them 13th, basically the inverse of the teams’ respective poll positions.

8. Louisville (previous: 11)

You can thank Louisville for knocking Notre Dame out of the poll again — something UConn made sure will stick a little longer this time around — as the Cardinals took down the Fighting Irish 79-66 on Thursday. Louisville then defeated NC State in overtime, a combo act that moved them into the top 10 in NET.

Louisville's wins against Notre Dame and NC State propelled it into NET's top 10. (Photo by Lance King/Getty Images)

7. Vanderbilt (previous: 10)

Vanderbilt is off to its greatest-ever start at 19-0, and picked up a win against Michigan on Monday that padded the Commodores’ résumé a bit. Vandy has Auburn up next — 65th in NET — and then it’s time for a huge SEC matchup against current No. 2 South Carolina.

6. Michigan (previous: 6)

Michigan might have lost to Vanderbilt, but the Wolverines also stormed back from a serious first-half beatdown to put a serious scare into the Commodores — Michigan was a late 3-pointer from either Olivia Olson or Syla Swords away from sending that one to overtime, and it’s unclear if Vanderbilt would have prevailed there given how the second half went. Running in place in NET following that loss isn’t a terrible outcome.

5. LSU (previous: 5)

LSU’s ranking in NET hasn’t changed for some time, but the résumé backing up that ranking has grown stronger and more convincing of late. The Tigers beat ranked Oklahoma by 19 points after guaranteeing Texas wouldn’t finish the regular season undefeated, putting LSU’s early SEC-season troubles in the rear view.

4. South Carolina (previous: 3)

The Gamecocks got their revenge against the Longhorns, 68-65, but NET slotted South Carolina right behind Texas this week, anyway. The why of it is a little tough to figure out: Texas has more Quad 1 wins (5) but also an additional Quad 1 loss, and South Carolina has more Quad 2 matchups and victories as well as twice as many road wins. Regardless of the exact tipping point in the math, the two are clearly neck-and-neck.

3. Texas (previous: 4)

The Longhorns rebounded from their loss to South Carolina by annihilating Texas A&M, 80-35. The Aggies aren’t a bad team, either — that was looking like a bubble squad, and Texas handled them like a bottom-tier squad.

2. UCLA (previous: 2)

Beating Minnesota 76-58 was expected, given UCLA is the team with the best chance of unseating UConn in the poll and in NET. Taking down ranked Maryland by 30 points, though? And nearly hitting the century mark doing so? Well, that’s why UCLA is the team with the best chance of unseating UConn in the poll and in NET.

1. UConn (previous: 1)

That being said, "best chance" is not the same thing as "imminent." UConn faced off against Villanova — 33rd in NET — and crushed them 99-50 in what was supposed to be the biggest of the Big East challenges in the Huskies’ way. Connecticut then faced longtime rival Notre Dame and pulled off the most lopsided victory in 56 head-to-head matchups between the two. UCLA has had the third-toughest schedule of anyone in Division I women’s basketball, but UConn has had the fourth-most-difficult, and remains undefeated, as well.

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 women’s college basketball in the last week…

5. Hawai’i, 194 to 166: Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara both fell to Hawai’i in the past week, with the second of those being the one that gave the Rainbow Wahine a serious boost in NET — the Gauchos were a top-100 team before that L.

4. East Carolina, 169 to 139: East Carolina picked up wins against Tulsa and Temple, which was impressive for two reasons: both were borderline top-125 teams, and also the Pirates won by a combined 47 points.

UConn dominated Villanova and Notre Dame in the last week to retain the top spot. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images)

T2. Jacksonville State, 236 to 205: JSU played just one game last week, but made it count: a 74-47 victory over Kennesaw State. That’s a much larger margin of victory than expected for two teams that weren’t that far apart in the rankings, but the Gamecocks now leapfrogged the Owls with this one.

T2. Georgia State, 228 to 197: A loss to Georgia Southern was an expected one, since the Eagles are a top-90 team, but beating down App State 79-57 was a shocking upset that boosted the Panthers’ profile.

1. Monmouth, 222 to 183: A close win against Towson — 56-53 — made sense given the relative rankings, but the similarly rated Campbell was crushed by Monmouth, 72-31, and it led to this massive jump.

…and the five that fell the furthest.

5. Temple, 112 to 140: Temple fell to Tulane, 71-58, and then East Carolina defeated the Owls 81-65. Temple was better-regarded by NET in both instances, but that gap has narrowed in the case of Tulane and is nonexistent for East Carolina.

4. Kennesaw State, 218 to 247: The result of that aforementioned huge loss to Jacksonville State.

3. Utah State, 214 to 246: Losing to Fresno State and Boise State was expected. Losing by 30 and 16 points, respectively, maybe less so.

2. Bryant, 114 to 144: Bryant had been undefeated in America East play, but the Bulldogs lost to UMCB and NJIT in the past week to drop them to third place and 4-2 in the conference.

1. App State, 129 to 178: The loss to Georgia State was already covered, but App State also dropped a game to Old Dominion before that, dropping them to 1-6 in Sun Belt play and the wrong half of the NET rankings.

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. Georgetown (previous: 91): A serious jump for Georgetown, thanks to Hoyas’ victories over St. John’s and Marquette, which had been creeping up on the NET top-50. Georgetown’s next opponent is a visiting No. 1 UConn, which will at the least get them a second Quad 1 matchup on the résumé.

72. South Florida (previous: 73): Wins against UTSA and Wichita State didn’t move the needle much, but it beats what would have happened if the Bulls lost one of these games.

71. Ball State (previous: 78): Beating Buffalo by 42 points and then Western Michigan by 21 gave Ball State a push into bubble territory. Buffalo is a bottom-tier team outside of the top 300, but 42 points is 42 points.

70. Columbia (previous: 69): A step back for Columbia, despite wins over Yale and Brown. Yale began last week 280th in NET, and Brown 130th, so this falls into the expected happened territory.

69. George Mason (previous: 64): A 5-point win against Loyola Chicago isn’t going to cut it on the bubble, though defeating Saint Joseph’s — last week’s 65th team — is a plus.

George Mason is still in the bubble despite a loss last week. (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images)

68. Montana State (previous: 72): Moving on up a little bit, courtesy an 82-44 win over Montana and a second dub over Northern Colorado. The latter was the more impressive one in NET’s equivalent of eyes.

67. Rice (previous: 67): Rice ran in place despite two wins, as the W over North Texas was a close one, 58-54. If not for conference-leading senior forward Megan Nestor pulling down 21 rebounds, maybe the Owls would have had a more convincing win.

66. Santa Clara (previous: 63): From right outside the bubble’s purview to just inside it. Santa Clara lost to Portland before winning against Saint Mary’s (CA), with the two nearly canceling each other out given the teams’ similar NET rankings.

65. Auburn (previous: 71): Upsetting ranked Alabama was huge, but it was also Auburn’s lone game last week. Still, NET sees them as a bubble team, and now one with a huge dub on the résumé come selection time.

64. Gonzaga (previous: 68): An 82-69 win over San Francisco followed by an 87-42 victory over San Diego better-secured Gonzaga’s position within the bubble. The Bulldogs are 6-1 in West Coast Conference play, tied for first; if they keep it up, NET ranking will be more about seeding than selection.

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