And here are the rankings for the modern era (1985 - present).
50 Greatest Programs of All-Time (Updated Through 2021)
- Thread starter dukedevilz
- Start date
@boilerzz Purdue jumps from 31st to 25th in the all-time rankings.
UConn also leaps into 6th place, ahead of Louisville and Indiana. And Alabama finally cracks the top 50. Double-click on the screenshots to enlarge.
UCLA hanging on for dear life with just a 7 point lead over UNC for 2nd place. Can't imagine that will last much longer.
I agree with the list mostly (how can you argue with numbers), but personally I already have UNC ahead of them. I think I'd have IU over UL too. My top 8 would be
UK
UNC
Ucla
Kansas
Duke
Uconn
Indiana
Louisville
Nova
And here are the rankings for the modern era (1985 - present).
Look at KU with only 3 titles lmfao.
Says the guy who combs through every post for anything that seems slightly critical of UConn. 🤣
Another method:
Point System:
National Titles Since ’85 - x50
National Titles Pre ’85 - x30
Runner-ups Since ’85 - x20
Runner-ups Pre ’85 - x12
Final Fours Since ’85 - x12
Final Fours Pre ’85 - x7.2
Elite Eights Since ’85 - x9
Elite Eights Pre ’85 - x5.4
Sweet 16s Since ’85 - x6
Sweet 16s Pre ’85 - x3.6
Tournament Bids - x3
Regular Season High Major Conference Titles - x7
Regular Season Mid Major Conference Titles - x5
Regular Season Low Major Conference Titles - x3
Conference Tourney Titles - x3
NIT Titles - x1
1st Team All-Americans - x3
NPOY selections - x5
Weeks Ranked - x0.5
Wins - x0.25
Point System:
National Titles Since ’85 - x50
National Titles Pre ’85 - x30
Runner-ups Since ’85 - x20
Runner-ups Pre ’85 - x12
Final Fours Since ’85 - x12
Final Fours Pre ’85 - x7.2
Elite Eights Since ’85 - x9
Elite Eights Pre ’85 - x5.4
Sweet 16s Since ’85 - x6
Sweet 16s Pre ’85 - x3.6
Tournament Bids - x3
Regular Season High Major Conference Titles - x7
Regular Season Mid Major Conference Titles - x5
Regular Season Low Major Conference Titles - x3
Conference Tourney Titles - x3
NIT Titles - x1
1st Team All-Americans - x3
NPOY selections - x5
Weeks Ranked - x0.5
Wins - x0.25
Not bad. My point system, perhaps, could be tweaked a little bit. I know my methodology is flawed, but there really isn't a perfect way to do this because you have a lot of data that isn't comparable.
But, I do think think my system is better than this one. Here are some things I don't like about this one.
- An NCAA Title in 1984 is only worth 60% of what a title is worth in 1985. I'm not seeing it.
- The NCAA Champions are receiving 2.5x as many points as the runner-ups (250% increase), yet the runner-ups are only receiving 2/3 more points than the Final Four participants (66.7% increase). That seems incongruent.
- NIT Title in 2024 is worth the same value as in NIT Title in 1940. The NIT was extremely competitive in the 1940's. Multiple nationally-ranked squads in the field. Teams winning it today were unranked bubble teams.
- No points awarded for the Round of 32.
- Some programs benefit for being around a lot longer, mostly from overall wins. Washington is 50th in this ranking, but only 68th in mine. Their inaugural year was 1896, which was before all of the bluebloods. I gave 1939 as the baseline year, as that was the first year of the NCAA Tournament.
- Conferences like the ACC and SEC will have a huge advantage over the likes of the Big Ten and Pac-10, which didn't have tournaments for a long period. I only counted those tournaments from 2002 and forward, to allow everyone on equal footing.
- The conference regular season titles, based on high-major/mid-major/low-major, can be deceiving. On my point system, a team only gets 5 points for a conference titles if there are at least 4 teams in the top 50. In the past 40 years, I think just about every conference hasn't met this standard; the Pac-12 has missed multiple times. And then you have those labeled as "mid-majors" like the MWC. I believe they've finished ahead of all the power conferences at one point. It's not unusual for them to put 4 teams in the top 50. Might also see it from the AAC, A-10, old C-USA, or the MVC from back in the day, as well.
- I only give credit to the final ranking. Early season rankings are unmerited. Teams collapse all the time where they don't even make the NCAAs. It's almost like awarding points to a school that may have been winning in X number of minutes, only to lose the game. They're still awarded for at least winning at certain points in the game. The only thing that matters, IMO, is that final poll before the tournament.
-Not sure I like the individual awards in this aggregation. If those players really help the team win, that will be reflected in the other metrics. Iowa, for example, won 1 tournament game where they had Garza & Keegan Murray in back-to-back years as 1st Team All-Americans.
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@dukedevilz I love your contributions to this site. Your spread sheet is wonderful. If you tweak one thing you lessen another. Think long and hard before you change your formula because it is the best that I have seen.
I totally agree that individual awards have nothing to do with ratings.
I totally agree that individual awards have nothing to do with ratings.
Yeah, I think that's fair. I'm not in a hurry to change anything.
Points for conference regular season titles and conference tournament titles is what I've struggled with the most.
EvilMonkeyInTheCloset
Well-Known Member
I see Iowa is on that list because that is the only way to make valid sports lists in 2024.And here are the rankings for the modern era (1985 - present).
Well done!
I see Iowa is on that list because that is the only way to make valid sports lists in 2024.
Well done!
Are you looking at Iowa State, coming in at #42?
Iowa's not too far down. 57th in the modern era. Win a Big Ten Title & a Sweet 16 next season and you all would catapult into the top 50.
Anything that doesn’t give points for an FSU title in 2020 is a worthless system.
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