When it comes to NCAA Tournament selections and seeing the most important metric is the NET ranking, the NCAA’s exclusive all encompassing metric that they use for sorting teams into the quadrants you hear referenced as it relates to quadrant-1, quadrant-2, quadrant-3, and quadrant-4 wins and losses.
To put it simply, how a team stands in the NET rankings is of extreme importance as it relates to their postseason standing.
In addition to wins and losses the NET adjusts for what team is at home, on the road, or if the game was at a neutral site and it factors in offensive and defensive efficiency numbers. They haven’t told people exactly what the formula is as they want to keep it a secret but they have come out and given those rough starting points. Whatever the method is, it’s the most important number out there when it comes to college basketball.
That means that when the NCAA came out with the first NET ranking update of the season on Monday morning it was a big deal to see who landed where. Obviously the sample size is still small but it’s a start for teams to see roughly where they stand most of the way through the conference season.
For the Gators, it meant them coming in at 78th.
This number can’t be particularly shocking but it is concerning. That number would suggest they might be on the outside looking in if the NCAA Tournament were to start tomorrow (which is a bit of an outlandish way to look at things, that’s for sure) but it shows just how much work they’ll have to do to climb up the rankings.
For whatever it’s worth, the lowest team in the NET to receive an at-large bid into the big dance last year was St. John’s at 73rd, a trip to the first-four in Dayton that was one of the biggest bubble team debates to take place. It should also be noted that the NCAA has stated that they have tweaked the formula from last year to make what they think are improvements and for that reason it could be unlikely a team could fall that high in the NET rankings and still get a bid.
Florida has had a challenging schedule up until this point of the season and still has plenty of tough tests waiting for them in the SEC. Here is where every one of Florida’s opponents this year sat in the first release of the NET.
Butler #4
Baylor #5
Auburn #7
Arkansas #23
Tennessee #25
LSU #26
Florida State #27
Ole Miss #46
Utah State #47
Kentucky #58
UConn #69
Xavier #71
Missouri #73
Georgia #76
Miami #89
Mississippi State #90
Alabama #96
Vanderbilt #99
Towson #144
South Carolina #145
Providence #146
North Florida #209
Long Beach State #214
Saint Joseph’s #228
Texas A&M #281
As you can see some of Florida’s early season opponents have done decently well and they will also have some great opportunities in the SEC to get quality wins. The Gators will have every chance to improve on what is currently a disappointing ranking and this will be a metric to keep an eye on moving forward in the season, and that starts with Providence on Tuesday night.