The NCAA on Monday released its 2024-25 season debut of the college basketball NET rankings -- a tool used by the NCAA Tournament's selection committee as part of its criteria to evaluate a team's résumé -- with Tennessee at No. 1 and AP-ranked No. 1 Kansas at No. 9. The Vols ranked No. 7 in the latest AP Top 25 last week but have a perfect 7-0 record and a scoring margin that ranks No. 7 in all of college hoops.
Auburn, Gonzaga, Duke and Pitt are Nos. 2-5 in the NET rankings in a mix of teams that rank highly in analytics but have largely been dinged for early-season slips. Of those, Auburn is the only team yet to take a loss on the season.
Among the factors the NET takes into account include strength of schedule, scoring margin, net efficiency on offense and defense, and quality of both wins and losses, per the NCAA. The number of factors included makes predicting the NET something of a guessing game, with unranked Illinois up at No. 10 and undefeated Oklahoma at No. 37 among the many surprises.
This year's NET rankings also includes a metric called "WAB" -- which stands for Wins Above Bubble -- which is a metric formulated by analytics website BartTorvik.com that now goes on the Team Sheets for consideration by the selection committee. Auburn is No. 1 in WAB to start the season followed by Oregon, Marquette, Kansas and Memphis.
NET Rankings Top 10
| Rank | Team | WL | Avg Opp NET Rank | Avg Opp NET | NET SOS | WAB |
| 1 | Tennessee | 7-0 | 41 | 128 | 96 | 7 |
| 2 | Auburn | 7-0 | 12 | 94 | 16 | 1 |
| 3 | Gonzaga | 7-1 | 24 | 113 | 39 | 9 |
| 4 | Duke | 5-2 | 23 | 112 | 28 | 26 |
| 5 | Pittsburgh | 7-1 | 8 | 85 | 29 | 6 |
| 6 | Florida | 8-0 | 108 | 163 | 268 | 18 |
| 7 | Marquette | 8-0 | 78 | 148 | 67 | 3 |
| 8 | Kentucky | 7-0 | 146 | 176 | 212 | 15 |
| 9 | Kansas | 7-0 | 24 | 113 | 49 | 4 |
| 10 | Illinois | 6-1 | 187 | 186 | 147 | 31 |
