3/15 Oracle/ITA Ranking Projections - New Men's #1

There have only been two men's teams to hold down the No. 1 spot this season, North Carolina and Virginia. The Cavaliers held the top spot up until the National Team Indoors then the Tar Heels took over after winning the event in Charlottesville. After this happenings of this past weekend, which saw North Carolina get upset by Florida State while Virginia beat Oklahoma, Virginia has taken the top spot back by the slimmest of margins with UNC falling to No. 2

TCU, which was idle last week, holds firm at No. 3 while last week's No. 2, Ohio State, who was also idle drops down to No. 4. UCLA and Oklahoma State swap spots at No. 5 and No. 6 with just a .03 separating them.

This week's rankings took into account each team's five best wins though starting next week things really start to ramp up with the six best wins used and then following week it goes to the seven best wins.

Northwestern moved back into the top 10 at No. 7 after its first win over Illinois since 1997 while Texas Tech, who was idle, slid up to No. 8 (TT plays Indiana today in San Diego so if they were to get upset that would change things). Texas A&M dropped from No. 7 to No. 9 after losing at Arkansas while Wake Forest dropped one spot from No. 9 to No. 10 despite a 7-0 win over Notre Dame.

Arkansas, Florida State, Mississippi State, and Wisconsin were the big movers this week. Arkansas rose 19 spots from No. 32 to No. 13 after taking out both No. 7 Texas A&M and No. 44 LSU. Florida State rose 28 spots from No. 51 to No. 23 after the Noles stunned No. 1 North Carolina on Friday night. Mississippi State rose 19 spots from No. 44 to No. 25 after beating No. 12 Kentucky and No. 72 Tennessee. Wisconsin rose 18 spots from No. 49 to No. 31 after winning at No. 36 Drake plus it benefited from Princeton moving up eight spots.

Georgia Tech will also move up roughly 9 spots from No. 42 to No. 33 after winning on Sunday at No. 27 NC State.

Despite shutting out Fresno State 7-0, Oregon will drop 10 spots from No. 20 to No. 30. Four of the Ducks five best wins fell in the rankings last week which therefore impacts the rankings this week. Indiana fell from No. 58 to unranked, Boise State fell from No. 71 to unranked, UC Santa Barbara fell from No. 52 to No. 46, and Old Dominion fell from No. 28 to No. 40.

27 of the 40 schools in my projected top 40 have five wins over current top 75 opponents. Schools that have an * beside the school name have less than five ranked wins so I had to do some guesswork on where the unranked wins fall in the rankings.


Cal holds on to the top spot in the women's rankings by a slim margin over Ohio State while North Carolina and Georgia swapped spots at No. 3 and No. 4. Pepperdine made a big move from No. 17 up to No. 5 after picking up a win over No. 31 NC State plus several of its five best wins made big increases last week - USC from unranked to No. 43, Auburn from No. 29 to No. 11, Arizona State from No. 36 to No. 26, and Texas from No. 73 to No. 32.

South Carolina will enter the top 10 at No. 9 after defeating No. 5 Vanderbilt and No. 19 Kentucky.

Georgia Tech came up 15 spots from No. 34 to No. 19 after beating No. 22 Wake Forest and No. 30 Syracuse last week. The yo-yo that is Clemson jumped 21 spots from No. 42 to No. 21 after beating No. 30 Syracuse and No. 66 Florida State. These are Clemson's rankings over the last 4 weeks - 42, 19, 34, and 21 so as you can see they go up then down and then up and then down.

28 of the 40 schools in my projected top 40 have five wins over current top 75 opponents.

3/15/16 Men's Ranking Projections

Rank	School	Points	Previous
1	Virginia	77.17	4
2	North Carolina	76.68	1
3	TCU	74.59	3
4	Ohio State	73.55	2
5	UCLA	64.42	6
6	Oklahoma State	64.39	5
7	Northwestern	60.58	11
8	Texas Tech	57.83	10
9	Texas A&M	57.31	7
10	Wake Forest	54.37	9
11	Illinois	52.95	8
12	USC	51.45	15
13	Arkansas	45.78	32
14	Oklahoma	44.66	13
15	South Florida	44.41	16
16	California*	44.16	14
17	Kentucky	40.58	12
18	Texas	39.17	19
19	Georgia	38.39	17
20	Michigan	37.19	24
21	Baylor	35.33	18
22	Ole Miss*	33.62	22
23	Florida State	30.99	51
24	Florida*	29.86	25
25	Mississippi State	29.77	44
26	Penn State	28.98	23
27	Tulane	28.62	21
28	Memphis*	28.57	28
29	Tulsa*	28.25	26
30	Oregon*	27.04	20
31	Wisconsin*	25.69	49
32	NC State*	24.71	27
33	Georgia Tech	24.40	42
34	San Diego	23.00	29
35	Old Dominion*	22.75	40
36	Dartmouth*	22.44	34
37	Princeton	22.33	30
38	Rice*	21.85	33
39	Columbia*	21.68	31
40	Virginia Tech*	20.03	39

* indicates at least one win over an opponent ranked outside the top 75

3/15/16 Women's Ranking Projections

Rank	School	Points	Previous
1	Cal	79.94	1
2	Ohio State	79.57	2
3	North Carolina	74.47	4
4	Georgia	72.14	3
5	Pepperdine	57.78	17
6	Michigan	56.56	6
7	Vanderbilt	55.64	5
8	Duke	54.91	8
9	South Carolina	53.59	12
10	Virginia	52.71	10
11	Texas Tech	52.55	7
12	Miami	50.44	9
13	Florida	50.36	18
14	Texas A&M	44.59	16
15	Auburn	43.72	11
16	Oklahoma State	42.05	13
17	Stanford	38.86	23
18	LSU	38.49	15
19	Georgia Tech	37.66	34
20	Wichita State	36.70	14
21	Clemson	35.55	42
22	Mississippi State	33.63	28
23	Tulsa*	30.65	21
24	Fresno State	29.28	20
25	Arizona State	28.51	26
26	Kentucky	27.98	19
27	Kansas	27.48	24
28	UCLA	26.56	25
29	Wake Forest*	25.12	22
30	Oregon*	23.64	36
31	Virginia Tech*	22.00	29
32	Denver*	21.81	35
33	Arkansas*	21.58	33
34	William & Mary*	21.04	37
35	Texas*	20.82	32
36	Northwestern*	20.54	39
37	Ole Miss*	19.90	27
38	Notre Dame	19.80	40
39	Columbia*	18.09	38
40	Syracuse*	17.89	30

* indicates at least one win over an opponent ranked outside the top 75