The college basketball season is here, and with it comes an annual Sports Illustrated tradition: the thankless task of attempting to rank every team in the sport. It was hard before the nonstop roster turnover that has reshaped the way rosters are built. Now? It’s even more challenging. It’s no longer enough just to know about Division I players and top high school recruits; covering college hoops in 2025 also requires some international expertise (players from leagues across Europe and around the globe are enrolling) and knowledge of lower levels like Division II and NAIA, plus intel on how all those pieces fit together.
Despite the challenges, it’s an inexact science worth taking on. The art of ranking every team helps you better understand the prevailing winds of player movement, which leagues look better or worse than normal and which teams from smaller leagues might emerge as potential Cinderellas. Last year’s rankings had their misses (top-10 Baylor and North Carolina squads that limped to the tournament) and hits (early shoutouts for Drake and UCSD as potential sleepers and bullish rankings compared to consensus) on emerging powers like Florida and Texas Tech. If nothing else, there’s real value in a comprehensive ranking created by hand, rather than the preseason analytical models like KenPom and T-Rank (which are incredibly valuable tools in the monthslong process of building these rankings).
