MBB: University Athletic Association

[deiscanton]

The NCAA DIII Men's Basketball Committee released the official NPI summary report for games through February 1, 2025.  However, while the national NPI rankings of the UAA men's basketball teams are correct, the "official" NPI numbers of the UAA men's basketball teams as calculated by the NCAA computer are incorrect.  That is because the NCAA DIII NPI computer, for the second year in a row, is incorrectly counting games where Coast 2 Coast teams are playing each other as conference round-robin games.  The Coast 2 Coast Conference does not play conference round robin games-- only C2C conference tournament games are the official conference games in the C2C.  Moreover, starting this season, the C2C is seeding the teams in their conference tournaments using the D3Datacast NPI numbers. 

Since Emory and UChicago played C2C teams in their non-conference schedules this season, the NPI numbers being calculated by the NCAA DIII computer are different than the D3Datacast NPI numbers. 

For the second year in a row, the NCAA DIII NPI calculator is also not programmed to account for the fact that the GNAC only plays a single round robin prior to their conference tournament, and is once again counting the first game where one GNAC team plays another as a conference game if the two GNAC teams play each other twice.   In GNAC, if one GNAC team is playing another twice in the same season, only the second game counts as the conference round robin game.  GNAC conference round robin action is being played as doubleheaders on the men's and women's sides-- but both the GNAC men's and women's conference games are single round robin.

The larger discrepancy in Brandeis's numbers in both NCAA and D3Datacast is explained by the fact that Brandeis played GNAC teams in their non-conference schedule.

The NCAA DIII NPI February 1, 2026 summary report for men's basketball can be located at:

http://stats.ncaa.org/selection_rankings/nitty_gritties/48516

Here are the discrepancies due to incorrect calculation by the NCAA of games where C2C teams played against each other and skewed the NPI numbers, as well as incorrect calculation by the NCAA of non-conference games where GNAC teams played against each other:

1.)  UChicago-- ranked #1 in NPI by both NCAA and D3Datacast-- NCAA has the NPI at 69.155, while D3Datacast has it at 69.156

2.)  Emory-- ranked #9 in NPI by both NCAA and D3Datacast-- NCAA has the NPI at 66.285, while D3Datacast has it at 66.283

3.)  WashU-- ranked #20 in NPI by both NCAA and D3Datacast-- NCAA has the NPI at 62.742, while D3Datacast has it at 62.739

4.)  Brandeis-- ranked #28 in NPI by both NCAA and D3Datacast-- NCAA has the NPI at 61.769, while D3Datacast has it at 61.761  (Brandeis played 2 GNAC teams, Emmanuel and Lasell, in their non-conference schedule.)

5.)  NYU-- ranked #34 in NPI by both NCAA and D3Datacast-- NCAA has the NPI at 61.198, while D3Datacast has it at 61.196.  (NYU played GNAC team University of St. Joseph in their non-conference schedule.)

6.) Carnegie Mellon-- ranked #64 in NPI in both NCAA and D3Datacast-- NCAA has the NPI at 58.345, while D3Datacast has it at 58.335

7.)  CWRU-- ranked #117 in NPI in both systems-- NCAA has the NPI at 55.254, while D3Datacast has it at 55.251

8.)  Rochester-- ranked #120 in NPI in both systems-- NCAA has the NPI at 55.194, while D3Datacast has it at 55.186