NET rankings reveal Gophers well behind NDSU, SDSU, St. Thomas

Only four major conference programs rank behind Minnesota in the NET.

Dec 4, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers forward Dawson Garcia (3) reacts during the second half against the Michigan State Spartans at Williams Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images / Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

If you're a Gophers men's basketball fan, don't look at the NET rankings. In fact, just stop reading this story. The result, if you do dare forward, may be accompanied by symptoms of nausea, frustration and bleeding eyes.

Things are so down for Minnesota (6-5) this season that they rank lower in the NCAA's NET rankings than three teams from the Summit League: North Dakota State, South Dakota State and St. Thomas.

NDSU ranks 97th while SDSU (106) and St. Thomas (122) are close behind.

The Gophers are way down at No. 170.

There are only four teams from major conferences ranked lower than Minnesota: Georgia Tech (175), Seton Hall (185), Boston College (190) and Virginia Tech (191).

The next lowest-ranked team from the Big Ten is Washington at No. 120. USC at No. 114 is the only other Big Ten program outside the top 100. In fact, the only other Big Ten team not in the top 65 is Rutgers at No. 83.

One of the team's Minnesota barely defeated was Omaha, which ranks 294th of 364 teams in the country.

Here's where the teams the Gophers have played this season rank in the NET: Oral Roberts (331), Bethune Cookman (296), Omaha (294), Cleveland State (282), Central Michigan (151), Wake Forest (118), Yale (115), Wichita State (94), North Texas (66), Indiana (65) and Michigan State (21).

Up next for the Gophers is a date with Fairleigh Dickinson, which ranks 329th in the NET. Afer that it's Morgan State (353rd in the NET) before the full Big Ten schedule begins against Purdue on Jan. 2.