South Carolina 1st, UCLA 5th in Latest NCAA Women's Basketball NET Rankings
![[US, Mexico & Canada customers only] Sep 10, 2024; Washington, DC, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley speaks during a ceremony welcoming the women's basketball 2023-2024 NCAA championship team in the East Room of the White House. Mandatory Credit: Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via Imagn Images](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_4500,h_2531,x_0,y_78/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2Fwomens-fastbreak-on-si%2F01jf85gzy7jrqtjxwj3d.jpg "[US, Mexico & Canada customers only] Sep 10, 2024; Washington, DC, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley speaks during a ceremony welcoming the women's basketball 2023-2024 NCAA championship team in the East Room of the White House. Mandatory Credit: Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via Imagn Images")
While the women's college basketball AP rankings dictate what number appears next to each team's name every week, perhaps even more important is the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings, which according to the NCAA, "replaced the RPI prior to the 2018-19 season as the primary sorting tool for evaluating teams."
The NET rankings include, "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."
And most importantly of all, the NET rankings are what is used by the Selection Committee when determining the seeding for the NCAA Tournament.
All of this is to say that the NET rankings are crucial. In the first edition, the South Carolina Gamecocks were the top team, despite having suffered a defeat to the UCLA Bruins.
The newest NET rankings were released on Monday, and Staley's South Carolina squad still holds the top spot.
"🚨 NET RANKINGS UPDATE 🚨
1. South Carolina
2. Texas
3. Kansas State
4. UConn
5. UCLA
6. Notre Dame
7. TCU
8. USC
9. Vanderbilt
10. West Virginia," a post from the NCAA March Madness X account wrote.
🚨 NET RANKINGS UPDATE 🚨
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) December 16, 2024
1. South Carolina
2. Texas
3. Kansas State
4. UConn
5. UCLA
6. Notre Dame
7. TCU
8. USC
9. Vanderbilt
10. West Virginia.
The #NCAAWBB NET Rankings are used by the Selection Committee and updated daily 🔗 https://t.co/wtbTbFBOSd pic.twitter.com/uxSL88BXrP
It's interesting to see that the UCLA Bruins are at 5th in the NET rankings, considering they're the No. 1 ranked team in the AP poll, are the only undefeated squad out of this ranking's top-10, and hold a win over South Carolina.
We imagine that UCLA will eventually find its way closer to the top of this list if they remain undefeated.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.