How College Basketball Power Rankings are created
* Power Rankings are updated every Monday and Friday. Ranks are based on a rolling 20-game range overall; early in the season, this date range reaches back to regular-season games of the previous year.
We remember a comment from a college basketball bettor when tiny Morehead State upset powerhouse Louisville in the first round of the 2011 March Madness tournament. Odds Shark had predicted the Eagles would cover the spread and maybe even win outright based on some handicapping trends that included college basketball power rankings.
“How the hell do you handicap the second-place team in the OVC to beat Louisville!? How!? This should have been a blowout!”
Actually, it shouldn’t. They were 9.5-point underdogs but matched up well against Louisville and were ranked No. 50 among 345 teams here at Odds Shark. It underscores the value of NCAA basketball power rankings in determining the relative strength (and weakness) of teams. We compare all the important stats – field-goal percentage, three-point defense, home and road ATS victories, away rebounding and more – and rate all 345 college basketball teams according to our handicapping math. See below the ratings chart for details on the math that underlies the rankings.
College basketball has more teams than any other sport and more range of talent than any other sport. You can have a tiny Division 2 school playing the defending national champion at a preseason tournament and you have to be able to handicap whether the 45.5-point spread is a good bet or not.
The best way to help find betting value is via college basketball power rankings. It’s especially vital when teams are playing outside of their own conference where you have little or no game history to work from as a handicapper.
The NCAA Basketball Power Rankings at Odds Shark take into account road and home offense, rebounding stats, margin of victory averages, three-point skill, and more. Each team is ranked in a dozen categories and we apply our formula weightings to come up with a total offensive rank. We repeat the process with box-score data on defense – steals, defensive rebounding, defensive three-point efficiency and more.
With that overall power number, we extrapolate a final result by multiplying a strength-of-schedule factor that gives our overall NCAAB power rank. That list is a great guide for helping bettors evaluate the best college basketball odds. It’s valuable information all season long and you should bookmark the page, especially during preseason tourneys and postseason tournaments like the NIT and March Madness when teams from different conferences compete together.
Good luck with your NCAAB handicapping and bookmark this page for weekly power rank updates.