Women's College Basketball

Women's College Basketball Top 10, Bubble Team NET Rankings: OU, MSU Join Top 10

Updated Jan. 6, 2026 4:40 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. 5, according to NET.

The Top 10

10. Oklahoma (previous: 16)

A new entrant into the top-10, Oklahoma kicked off the new year by taking down Texas A&M on the road, 72-50, then followed that up with a dominant 95-47 W over Mississippi State, a top-40 team. That was not only enough to get the Sooners into the top 10, but also in there in favor of the likes of last week’s 10th-ranked team, Iowa, or Maryland, or Vanderbilt, or… you get it. Oklahoma will face test after test in conference play, and soon, with games against No. 18 Ole Miss and No. 6 Kentucky before next week.

9. TCU (previous: 9)

TCU is no longer undefeated, and that hurt it in the poll much more than in NET. That’s mostly because the latter was already accounting for the fact that the Horned Frogs weren’t quite as good as most of the other undefeated squads, based on their play and schedule. That being said, TCU is still the 9th team in NET, which puts it ahead of, oh, almost everyone else.

8. Michigan State (previous: 11)

Conference play has been no impediment for Michigan State so far, as it’s now 3-1 after picking up wins against Rutgers, Indiana and Illinois in its last three games. Those last two performances got the Spartans bumped into the top 10, as Indiana is a top-60 team and Illinois a top-40.

7. Kentucky (previous: 8)

Kentucky is responsible for handing LSU its first loss, though, by NET’s calculations, that was a bigger deal for the Wildcats than for the Tigers. It’s actually a little surprising that Kentucky isn’t higher in NET, given it has faced tougher competition and played more road games than LSU while having more wins and fewer losses. It might take some time for LSU’s historic beatdowns of Quad 4 teams in non-conference play to have less impact in the rankings, however.

Michigan has been reliant on driving to the basket of late, because the threes just aren't falling. (Photo by Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

6. Michigan (previous: 6)

Luckily for Michigan, this isn’t a ranking based on an ability to shoot over 30% on 3-pointers. Though, if the Wolverines don’t start hitting shots more consistently from beyond the arc, they aren’t going to stay in 6th in NET given how stacked the Big Ten is — the uglier wins will start to catch up to Michigan if they keep on piling up.

5. LSU (previous: 5)

LSU lost twice in the last week — to Kentucky and then Vanderbilt — and it’s a bit curious that this didn’t adversely impact them in NET even a little bit. Part of it is Michigan failing in their own way in the past week, sure, and the back-end of the top 10 including teams like Oklahoma and Michigan State that already leapt into the rankings from outside of them, pushing previous contenders for the list out. The bulk of the issue, though, is that LSU has played five road games — which is weighed heavily by NET — and even though 12 of their 14 wins have come against Quad 4 opponents, they were absolute blowouts. Combined with LSU’s defeats being close ones, and it’s hard to bump them back as severely as the poll voters did. If the Tigers struggle against the likes of Georgia, Texas and Oklahoma in the next couple of weeks, however, then we’ll likely see a shift.

4. Texas (previous: 3)

Texas might be undefeated, but it’s played a significantly easier schedule so far than any of the three teams in front of them. A much more difficult one than LSU, and tougher than anyone behind them in the top 10 besides Michigan, but the three teams ahead of them rank 18th, 3rd and 4th in average opponent NET rank, compared to Texas’ 63rd. Defeating No. 18 Ole Miss by all of 3 points probably did not help matters, given the heater that the next two teams have been on.

3. South Carolina (previous: 2)

Wins against Alabama (29th in NET) and Florida (58th) were significant, especially since the W against the Gators was on the road and still had the Gamecocks winning by 11. No, it wasn’t South Carolina’s performance that saw them slip a spot, but that of UCLA.

2. UCLA (previous: 4)

The Bruins jumped from 9th in average opponent NET rank to 3rd, the highest of any team in the top 10, thanks to taking on Penn State and then USC, a top-75 and top-20 team by NET prior to those matchups. UCLA defeated them by a combined 70 points. Not only did the quality of their competition trump that of the Longhorn’s opponents, but UCLA crushed its opposition, anyway. Getting senior center Lauren Betts’ freshman forward sister, Sienna Betts, into the lineup off of the bench has been huge for adding some height and rebounding ability to their already impressive depth.

1. UConn (previous: 1)

UConn played what everyone kept calling their worst game of the year against Providence to end 2025. The Huskies won by 37 points. Connecticut followed that up by crushing Seton Hall, 84-48, despite pulling almost all the starters in the fourth quarter, where the Pirates managed to double their points for the game against the bench. Oh, and it was a tie game with under two minutes to go in the first quarter. The Big East might not be as loaded as the Big Ten or SEC, but UConn brushed aside Seton Hall and Marquette, two tourney-caliber teams, to officially kick off its conference season.

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. Campbell, 239 to 210: Losing to Towson by just 3 points actually helped Campbell, given the teams’ relative positions in the NET rankings, and a win against Drexel brought them even higher.

4. UC Riverside, 254 to 223: Crushing a D-II team is all well and good, but the Highlanders got their real boost in the rankings from defeating Hawai’i, 65-58.

3. Lehigh, 228 to 187: Lehigh defeated Army, 77-66, which was huge considering the Black Knights were ranked 100 on the dot. Lehigh then took care of business against Bucknell with a 31-point win.

Lauren Betts and Sienna Betts finally got a chance to play together at UCLA, and the Bruins have been surging since. (Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)

T1. West Georgia, 288 to 245: Losing to Eastern Kentucky by much less than you’d think West Georgia would have helped, as did crushing Bellarmine, 106-65. Bellarmine is one of the 15 or so worst teams in the league this year, but that’s one hell of a margin of victory regardless.

T1. Fairleigh Dickinson, 169 to 126: FDU routed UMES to end its 2025, 85-57, then followed that up with a 20-point W over Mercyhurst and a 73-28 beatdown against St. Francis.

…and the five that fell the furthest.

5. Stetson, 152 to 183: Losing to Central Arkansas only hurt because it was by such a significant margin, 65-43. Turning around and defeating North Alabama 76-59 only did so much for Stetson, considering it’s a bottom-tier team.

T3. Tennessee Tech, 160 to 192: Winning against Tennessee State by just 3 points is practically a loss given the distance between the two in NET, and following that with an actual loss to Little Rock did not help matters.

T3. Buffalo, 249 to 281: Losses to Toledo and Western Michigan by a combined 51 points is no way to end last year or start the new one.

T1. Weber State, 215 to 248: Portland State and Sacramento State both defeated Weber State to start 2026, ending the Wildcats’ four-game win streak while also undoing some of the progress they had made in the rankings.

T1. Georgetown, 56 to 89: This one hurts, as Georgetown went from a near-top-50 team to outside of bubble territory. Seton Hall crushed the Hoyas, 81-36, then Xavier came away with a W by a single point.

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. Texas A&M (previous: 76): The Aggies move up ever so slightly courtesy a couple of losses to difficult teams in Oklahoma and Georgia. That’s a top-10 team in NET, and a top-40 one.

72. UC Irvine (previous: 72): UC Irvine has won both of its 2026 games so far, but they were against Cal State Bakersfield and Cal State Fullerton, so even double-digit wins are a push there.

71. Wisconsin (previous: 75): Wisconsin is in a difficult place. Namely, the Big Ten. The Badgers are 1-2 in Quad 1 games and 3-1 in conference play, so even though they aren’t ranked, their success against tough opponents has been noted.

Maryland is the lone Big Ten opponent to defeat Wisconsin so far. (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images)

70. Gonzaga (previous: 79): Dubs against Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount gave Gonzaga a boost, though, just into the bubble and not past it given neither is that intimidating of a foe.

69. Troy (previous: 67): The Trojans rebounded from a loss to Alabama with a win over Louisiana, but then Troy lost to Southern Miss, 98-95, in its most recent game.

68. UMass (previous: 74): The UMass Minutewomen were just outside our bubble territory last week, but made it in thanks to a resounding 73-40 victory over Western Michigan, followed by a 75-70 win over Kent State.

67. George Mason (previous: 69): A teeny jump in the rankings for George Mason, courtesy wins over Dayton and VCU, which both sit around the 200 mark in NET.

66. Auburn (previous: 65): Little change for Auburn, as even though it lost to Mississippi State and Tennessee since last time, the former is a top-40 team in NET, and the latter the No. 20 team both in the poll and via the NCAA Evaluation Tool.

65. Purdue (previous: 60): A tough week for the Boilermakers, as they had to take on Ohio State and Nebraska, both ranked in the poll and well-regarded by NET. Tougher news: it’s not like the Big Ten gets easier, and it’s conference season for Purdue.

64. Saint Joseph’s (previous: 62): Not much of a change here, other than sliding just far enough back that Saint Joseph’s has to be mentioned in this space. A pair of wins for the Hawks against VCU and Fordham, both of which rank in the 200s, isn’t enough to move the needle in the other direction.

63. Colorado (previous: 70): Now, wins against Arizona and Cincinnati? Those are both roughly top-150 teams, so Colorado got much more credit for its successful two-win week than Saint Joseph’s did for its own.

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