Half-way into the regular season the T100 still has 8 teams among its top 10 who were there at the beginning (AVCA has 7). Both the T100 and the AVCA have had 6 of those teams who not only began in the top 10, but have remained there every single week since. Both systems have seen Stevens, Wentworth, Southern Virginia, Springfield, and Vassar among that group every week, while the T100 includes Cal-Lu with this distinction to the AVCA’s North Central having it, too. (North Central dipped to #11 in Week 2 of the T100 and Cal-Lu started at #12 in the AVCA Coaches Poll as the only weeks not being in the top 10 of either.)
From those to begin the season among the top 40 teams, the biggest mover has been Hobart from #40 to its present T100 rank of #23, understandably so being a first year program with little evidence to warrant any better than a #40 before a player stepped on the court. Though it wasn’t shocking they creeped into the 20’s, the few weeks they spent better than #20 in the high teens of both the T100 and AVCA so early in the season was less expected. The other biggest mover over this time from its top 40 teams has been Nichols who began in the T100’s #26 slot and presently sits at #13. Ironic these were the very two teams that kicked off the D3 season on Thursday, January 11th to begin the madness that I suspect is still nowhere near its apex, yet.
I don’t create “Biggest Mover of the Week” awards any more, but would like to give some props to Wabash for being the biggest mover at the half-way point of ’24 as they have traveled up 28 ranked places starting at #60 and now being ranked at #32. While I am at it, kudos to Widener, Buffalo St., Wisconsin Steven’s Point, and Neumann to round out the group to have moved no less than 20 positions upward since the first T100 was posted!
Here is what it looks like now:
Don’t forget P(NB) is the probability any team will be awarded a Nationals Bid to the NCAA Tournament. If it looks a little crazy next to the ranking above, that is understandable. There are six conferences whose favorite to win their tournament, becoming an automatic qualifier, is less than 50-50 to get it done because of competitive parity near the top. The varying conference strength also plays a role in the lack of correlation to the T100 list, too. With so few at-large bids to be had this year (2), expect to see those come from the strongest 3 conferences. Should you want to read about conference strength, maybe check out a post from about two weeks ago. Those interested in the pure ranking can look above, and anybody more intrigued by the prospects for their team to make it into the NCAA Tournament, see below. It shows teams listed in the order of their chances to be awarded or earn the invite, hoping to still be playing in the middle of April at one of 4 regional locations to be determined later.
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