Where Vanderbilt Basketball Landed in First NET Rankings of 2025-26

Vanderbilt basketball is among the nation's elite in the NET Rankings as it sits eight games into the Mark Byington tenure on West End.

Nov 20, 2025; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Vanderbilt Commodores guard Tyler Tanner (3) drives baseline past Texas Southern Tigers forward Anthony Andrews (8) during the second half at Memorial Gymnasium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images | Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

Vanderbilt basketball is ranked No. 4 in the first college basketball NET Rankings of the season, per a Monday update to the rankings. 

The NCAA describes the NET Rankings as “the primary sorting tool for Division-I men’s basketball.” The rankings replaced the RPI prior to the 2018-2019 season. “The NET includes more components than just winning percentage. It takes into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses. It’s both a results-driven and predictive metric,” the NCAA says

Vanderbilt has put itself among the nation’s elite as a result of its 8-0 start to the season that includes wins over Saint Mary’s, VCU, UCF, Western Kentucky and four buy-game opponents. The Commodores’ rèsumè is among the strongest in all of college basketball as a result of their upper-quad wins as well as their drastic margin of victory in non-power five games.

Mark Byington’s team is the No. 1 SEC team in the poll, here’s the order of the top 10 teams as of Monday. 1. Michigan 2. Duke 3. Purdue 4. Vanderbilt

5. Gonzaga 6. Arizona 7. Iowa State 8. UConn 9. Louisville 10. Michigan State. Vanderbilt has worked to avoid complacency as a result of the rankings, though. 

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Vanderbilt guard Duke Miles said after the Commodores’ Battle 4 Atlantis win over Saint Mary’s . “We’re trying to get to the end goal and March to be out there playing for a national championship, so that’s the main goal.” 

As Vanderbilt looks to take a leap in 2025-26–Byington’s second year at the helm–it does so with a roster including just three returning scholarship players in Tyler Tanner, Devin McGlockton and Tyler Nickel. All three of which are expected to have significant roles on a team that possesses an eight-man transfer class headlined by TCU point guard Frankie Collins, North Carolina big man Jalen Washington, Washington wing Tyler Harris, Miles and Cornell wing AK Okereke. 

Vanderbilt finished last season with its first NCAA Tournament berth since the 2016-17 season after a 20-win season, but this team has all the signs of being better than that one.

“The priority this recruiting season was to gain some more length, size,” Vanderbilt assistant coach Xavier Joyner told Vandy on SI over the summer. “We knew going into last year we were maybe the smallest team in the SEC regarding length, size so we wanted to upgrade that, which we did.”