The calendar has officially flipped to November, which means we're less than a week away from the start of a new college basketball season. With that comes the return of Sports Illustrated’s annual ranking of all 362 teams in men’s Division I college hoops.
It’s a massive undertaking that each year produces some prescient takes as well as some ugly ones. Take last season’s rankings, which pegged eventual national runner-up San Diego State as having “legitimate Final Four aspirations” but also tabbed fellow Final Four participant Florida Atlantic outside the preseason top 100 and ranked a North Carolina team that missed the Big Dance at No. 1.
Ranking every team in the age of mass roster turnover all offseason (and even some instability still, just days from opening night) is a massive challenge, and there are sure to be plenty of misses along the way. But weighing everything from returning production to high-profile newcomers to coaching moves and using a combination of advanced analytics, the eye test and conversations with countless coaches from around the country, this is the best possible snapshot of preseason expectations across the men's college basketball landscape.
