The Real Prestige Rankings: Part XI

Table of Contents:

Introduction and Outline

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Part VIII

Part IX

Part X

Part XI

This is the eleventh and final part in my series of Prestige Rankings for NCAA Basketball over the past 24 years.  This is a summary of the previous ten articles, and allows you to see the rankings all in one spot.  However, it does not have the explanation and detail of the earlier articles.

My rankings are a more accurate and simplistic approach to the Prestige Rankings released by ESPN several weeks ago.  Please refer to the table of contents to view other articles in the series.

Conferences:

Here are conferences, in order of rank, along with their average point totals:

1.  ACC – 435.00

2.  Big Ten – 399.91

3.  Big East – 366.81

4.  SEC – 338.42

5.  Big 12 – 321.67

6.  Pac 10 – 280.20

7.  Atlantic 10 – 148.71

8.  Mountain West – 148.33

9.  Conference USA – 106.83

10.  West Cost Conference – 72.50

11.  Missouri Valley – 68.60

12.  Horizon – 54.00

13.  WAC – 45.11

14.  MAC – 38.00

15.  Sun Belt – 33.54

16.  CAA – 30.17

17.  Patriot League – 24.63

T-18.  MAAC – 18.00

T-18.  Ivy League – 18.00

20.  Southern – 16.36

21.  Big Sky – 14.44

22.  Big West – 13.33

23.  Ohio Valley – 10.18

24.  MEAC – 9.73

25.  Big South – 7.63

26.  SWAC – 7.50

27.  America East – 5.78

28.  Southland – 5.33

29.  Atlantic Sun – 4.67

30.  Northeast – 3.64

31.  Summit – 1.20

32.  Independents – 0.00

Top 50 Teams:

Here are the top 50 teams, listed in order with cumulative point totals over the past 24 seasons (rank, team, ESPN rank, point total)

1.  Duke (1) – 1,135

2.  North Carolina (3) – 1,106

3.  Kansas (2) – 1,076

4.  Kentucky (4) – 978

5.  Arizona (5) – 749

6.  UCLA (7) – 731

7.  Connecticut (6) – 724

8.  Syracuse (9) – 713

9.  Georgetown (T-10) – 690

10.  Michigan State (T-10) – 655

11.  Louisville (T-14) – 637

12.  Texas (18) – 632

13.  Illinois (23) – 616

14.  Maryland (28) – 601

15.  Indiana (13) – 587

16.  Oklahoma (12) – 576

17.  Arkansas (T-14) – 563

18.  Purdue (29) – 546

19.  Temple (20) – 538

20.  Oklahoma State (32) – 506

21.  Cincinnati (19) – 504

22.  Florida (21) – 500

23.  Alabama (T-35) – 484

24.  Michigan (22) – 475

25.  Stanford (25) – 466

26.  Memphis (T-14) – 460

27.  UNLV (8) – 453

28.  Utah (24) – 448

29.  Georgia Tech (33) – 446

30.  Ohio State (27) – 440

31.  Villanova (T-30) – 425

32.  Xavier (17) – 418

33.  Wake Forest (T-37) – 416

34.  Iowa (49) – 404

T-35.  Seton Hall (51) – 378

T-35.  Pittsburgh (T-43) – 378

T-37.  Wisconsin (T-43) – 364

T-37.  Boston College (T-70) – 364

39.  North Carolina State (52) – 358

40.  St. John’s (T-35) – 356

41.  Gonzaga (26) – 318

42.  Missouri (T-37) – 316

43.  LSU (T-40) – 314

44.  Auburn (T-90) – 310

45.  Iowa State (T-57) – 304

46.  Tulsa (39) – 302

T-47.  Virginia (T-70) – 278

T-47.  Notre Dame (T-86) – 278

49.  Mississippi State (T-86) – 252

50.  West Virginia (67) – 248

Summary:

If you compare my rankings to the ESPN rankings, I think it is quite clear that my simplistic scoring method was very comparable to the more complicated ESPN method.  In fact, I believe my scoring system has corrected for the questionable areas in the ESPN rankings.

The weaker teams that were ranked highly in ESPN’s rankings because of playing against weaker competition are not ranked as highly in my version.  As a result, the above average teams in the major conferences are all ranked more favorably in my rankings because they were pushed behind small conference teams in ESPN’s version.

Looking at the team rankings, most of the large rank differences come from the teams from weaker conferences (UNLV, Gonzaga, Tulsa, etc.) and from the more average teams in major conferences (Auburn, Notre Dame, Mississippi State, Boston College, etc.).

Please look back to my previous articles in this series for more detail on the teams and conferences.