HHS Top 25: Which Conferences Have the Most Ranked Teams?
Critics sometimes argue that the women’s NCAA tournament is less ripe for upsets than the men’s tournament. If this year’s regular season is any indication, though, the 2019 women’s tournament could definitely live up to the “March Madness” moniker. This week alone, the nation’s last remaining unbeaten team, North Carolina State, fell to rival North Carolina and UConn lost to Louisville in a clash of 2018 Final Four teams.
Here is the ballot we submitted to the STI/Hoopfeed Top 25 Poll for Week 13. This week’s poll covered games played from Tuesday, January 29 through Monday, February 4. Movement up or down from our Week 12 ballot is denoted in parentheses.
1. Baylor
2. Oregon (↑1)
3. Louisville (↑2)
4. UConn (↓2)
5. Notre Dame (↓1)
6. Mississippi State
7. Stanford
8. Marquette (↑1)
9. North Carolina State (↓1)
10. Oregon State
11. Maryland
12. Iowa
13. Syracuse (↑1)
14. Gonzaga (↑1)
15. Texas (↓2)
16. Michigan State
17. Iowa State
18. Arizona State (↑3)
19. Utah (↑3)
20. South Carolina (↑3)
21. Drake (↓3)
22. Kentucky (↓2)
23. Rutgers (↓4)
24. Florida State (↑1)
25. Miami (FL) (↓1)
Also considered: Texas A&M, West Virginia, North Carolina
With the 25 teams on our ballot not changing for the second straight week, it seems like a prime moment to look at which conferences are represented. Nine different conferences placed at least one team on our ballot this week, and the ACC leads the way with six ranked teams. Louisville, Notre Dame, and NC State are all ranked among our top nine teams, but only one can be the top seed in the ACC Tournament. Two upcoming games, Notre Dame at NC State on February 18 and NC State at Louisville on February 28, will go a long way toward determining the top seed, though there are three other ranked teams — not to mention unranked North Carolina — that are eager to crash the party.
The Pac-12 and Big Ten also have strength in numbers, with five Pac-12 teams and four Big Ten teams among our top 25. Out west, Oregon is our highest-ranked Pac-12 team, rising to No. 2 this week after wins over No. 19 Utah and unranked Colorado. No. 7 Stanford and No. 10 Oregon State give the conference three top-ten teams. In the next two weeks alone, Oregon and Oregon State will play each other twice and Stanford will play each of the Oregon schools once, so now is the time to add the Pac-12 Network to your TV channel lineup.
Meanwhile, the Big Ten mostly represents schools in the middle of the country, and its four teams are clustered in the middle of our top 25. Three Big Ten teams are ranked between Nos. 11 and 16, and the only matchup this season between No. 11 Maryland and No. 12 Iowa is coming up on February 17. While Maryland and Iowa were the league’s preseason top two teams, the other two ranked Big Ten teams, No. 16 Michigan State and No. 23 Rutgers, likely qualify as surprises. In the preseason, neither team was ranked in any national polls or picked to finish in the top three of the Big Ten, and only one player across the two teams was named preseason All-Big Ten.
The Big 12 and SEC each have three teams represented on our ballot, including No. 1 Baylor for the Big 12 and 2018 national runners-up Mississippi State for the SEC. Fellow top-ten teams Connecticut (AAC) and Marquette (Big East) are their conference’s only representatives. Rounding out our ballot are mid-majors Gonzaga (WCC) and Drake (MVC), which have combined for a 36–7 record this season and notched four wins over teams on this week’s ballot.
Which conference do you think is strongest at the top? Let us know in the comments section below or on Twitter (@herhoopstats). In the meantime, I’ll be dreaming of a three-game ACC-Pac 12 challenge that pits our top-ten teams from each conference against one another. Make sure to check out our rankings on the Hoopfeed website throughout the season.
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