Women's Fastbreak On SI

Texas Usurps South Carolina at 1 in Latest NCAA Women's Basketball NET Rankings

The South Carolina Gamecocks are no longer the nation's top NCAAW team, according to the NET rankings.

Grant Young

Dec 29, 2024; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley directs her team against the Wofford Terriers in the first half at Colonial Life Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-Imagn Images
Dec 29, 2024; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley directs her team against the Wofford Terriers in the first half at Colonial Life Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-Imagn Images / Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

There's no question that when it comes to which NCAA women's basketball rankings system receives the most attention, the AP rankings reign supreme.

However, there's also no question that the most important ranking system is the NET Rankings, which is the primary sorting tool for evaluating every Division 1 team and, "takes into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses."

But the main reason for the NET rankings' superior importance is that the Selection Committee uses it once it comes time to determine the seeding for the NCAA Tournament.

Despite suffering a loss to the UCLA Bruins earlier this season, the defending NCAA champion South Carolina Gamecocks had remained the No. 1 seed in the NET rankings. But that has now changed with the most recent update of this rankings system, which was released on Monday.

The NCAA March Madness women's basketball account made an X post that wrote, "🚨 NET RANKINGS UPDATE 🚨

1. Texas
2. South Carolina
3. UCLA
4. UConn
5. Kansas State
6. Notre Dame
7. USC
8. TCU
9. LSU
10. Ohio State".

As you'll see, the Texas Longhorns have overtaken Dawn Staley's Gamecocks squad as the country's top team according to the NET Rankings.

The 13-1 Texas Longhorns are currently ranked No. 5 in the AP rankings and only have one ranked win (against No. 17 ranked West Virginia) this season. They also lost to Notre Dame (who comes in at 6 in the current NET rankings) on December 5.

Regardless, something about Texas' season to this point has earned them the top spot. But there's still a lot of season to play.

Published
Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

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.

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