Iowa Surges in NET Rankings After Western Michigan Win

The Iowa Hawkeyes, in the team's opening season under head coach Ben McCollum, have quickly familiarized themselves with the national spotlight. After operating in the shadow of irrelavance for the final few year's of Fran McCaffery's tenure, the former head coach's helmed resurgence of the program has revived the best of black and gold basketball on the men's side of the spectrum.

While not yet recognized in the AP Poll - an unfortunate tidbit that appears less likely to remain stagnant with every Hawkeyes win - Iowa has seen improvement in other, similarly important lists in multiple facets. In addition to their steady standing in the KenPom ranking and the coaches' poll, the Hawkeyes have added a strong uptick in the NCAA NET to their rankings repertoire.

The latest iteration of the list comes directly in the wake of Iowa's redemptive home win over the Western Michigan Broncos, 91-51- after the Hawkeyes fell to their in-state rival Iowa State Cyclones just days before on the road.

Iowa head coach Ben McCollum instructs his team during a game against the Western Michigan Broncos Dec. 14, 2025 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. | Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Preserving a Reputation

The latter loss (however close) certainly impacted the team's reputation to some extent, but turning around and securing another convincing home win immediately thereafter seems to have done the dirty work in preserving their reputation.

Iowa has now officially entered the NET top 20, slotting in at No. 19 among all 365 programs given a position. Not bad, especially for a first-year captain. Although they're 0-2 in "Quad 1" matchups (a metric that boils factors down to wins of the highest quality), the Hawkeyes' flawless record otherwise (9-0) has proven the team's greater competence in the earliest stretch of a fresh campaign.

🚨 NET RANKINGS UPDATE 🚨

1. Michigan
2. Duke
3. Gonzaga
4. Arizona
5. Iowa State
6. BYU
7. UConn
8. Vanderbilt
9. Purdue
10. Michigan State

The NET Rankings are used by the Selection Committee and updated daily 👉 https://t.co/WcAiGNS4iP pic.twitter.com/ztm9AKlVz3
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) December 17, 2025

And as the group keeps improving, es evidenced by their near upset of an AP Top 5 team in the aforementioned Cyclones, higher rankings and stronger recognition will only come naturally as a result of their output.

Hunting a Quad 1 Win

Though Iowa has survived for the time without a high-level victory, the time will come in which McCollum will have to secure a "signature win" in order to break through to the higher plane on which he wants his teams to play.

The HC himself has made strong claims about wanting the men's team to fill Carver-Hawkeye Arena and, on a wider scale, expressed a desire to turn Iowa hoops into a prideful institution. The more time he spends in Iowa City, the more necessary big wins become to that mission.

Now, though, a 9-2 start and sudden widespread recognition will certainly do the trick.

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