Rankings for NCAA Women's Basketball are broken
Top 25 Rankings. One of the most hotly debated topics in the sports world, they spawn countless arguments, lead random people to insult various media members, and generate so many accusations of individual bias that it's almost comical. No matter how much people try to tell you they don't matter, it's clear that a large portion of sports consumers consider them to be very important.
In fact, as was so astutely pointed out by multiple media members back when Auburn was kept out of the #1 spot in the men's poll (supposedly by the actions of a single voter), recognition in the poll can be a program-defining moment.
That's why it is so frustrating to see the issues that are prevalent in the women's polls, where wins over highly-ranked traditional powers are given much more weight than wins over similarly ranked newer powers. Or bad losses are ignored in favor of piling up wins over lackluster competition.
Given that we cover the Kansas Jayhawks here, the examples I'll give will be focused on relative rankings compared to Kansas, but there are a LOT of examples throughout the season.
Let's look at the profiles of a few teams:
| Team | Record | Top 25 Wins | Top 40 NET Wins | Losses Outside Top 50 NET | NET of Best Win | NET of Worst Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A | 19-5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 33 |
B | 20-3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 31 | 195 |
C | 19-8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 89 |
D | 24-2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 161 |
Based on those stats, Teams B and D have better records, but each only have one big win that is counteracted by a really bad loss. Team A and Team C have comparable wins, but Team C has multiple bad losses.
In case you hadn't already pieced it together, Team A is Kansas, Team B is UCF, Team C is Georgia Tech and Team D is Florida Gulf Coast. only one of those teams isn't even receiving votes in the Coaches Poll, while the rest are all ranked. UCF is receiving less votes in the AP Poll, but the other two have double the points that the Jayhawks do.
I'll be honest that I don't know the solution. But as I mentioned on today's podcast, it seems ridiculous that Kansas isn't getting the same credit for their win over Texas and lack of bad losses while other teams are having their bad losses canceled out by similar wins.
