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Mid-Major Madness Power Rankings: Conference champions get a boost

NCAA Tournament-bound Loyola and Murray State jumped in the final poll of the season.

By Russell Steinberg
Photo Courtesy: Belmont University Athletics/Sam Simpkins

Well friends, we’ve made it. With less than a week until Selection Sunday, these are our final rankings of the 2017-18 college basketball season.

This week, you’ll see that the few conference champions who have already been crowned have received a bit of a boost — Loyola Chicago and Murray State, in particular, both made big jumps. Lipscomb also received quite a few votes this week and lands just outside the top 25.

Overall, however, this was a REALLY tough week to rank teams. So, have some restraint when going off on us on Twitter (if you can). Take my ballot, for example. I had Gonzaga ranked No. 1 last week, and the Bulldogs went unbeaten. Great. After that, numbers 2-4 all lost and 5 (Saint Mary’s) was less-than-convincing against an awful Pepperdine team to open the West Coast Conference Tournament.

What I’m trying to say is that in conference tournament time, when teams are playing multiple games on consecutive days during the week, this process gets difficult. So, without further ado, here’s where we landed when the dust settled:

Mid-Major Madness Power Rankings: Week 16

RANK TEAM RECORD LAST WEEK POINTS
RANK TEAM RECORD LAST WEEK POINTS
1 Gonzaga (9) 28-4 1 225
2 Saint Mary's 28-4 5 213
3 Nevada 26-6 3 200
4 St. Bonaventure 24-6 6 195
5 Rhode Island 23-6 2 188
6 Middle Tennessee 24-6 4 179
7 Loyola Chicago 28-5 12 167
8 Vermont 26-6 8 162
9 New Mexico State 25-5 9 154
10 South Dakota State 26-6 11 131
10 Murray State 26-5 14 131
12 Boise State 23-7 10 122
13 Old Dominion 24-6 13 106
14 Western Kentucky 22-9 7 86
15 Davidson 18-11 19 73
15 San Diego State 19-10 24 73
17 Bucknell 24-9 21 70
18 Louisiana 26-5 15 68
19 UNC Greensboro 26-7 20 62
20 Charleston 24-7 18 55
21 East Tennessee State 25-8 17 48
22 South Dakota 25-7 22 40
23 Montana 23-7 23 35
24 BYU 23-9 24 32
25 Belmont 24-9 16 25

Also receiving votes: Lipscomb 23, Buffalo 12, Penn 10, Northeastern 9, Fresno State 4, Florida Gulf Coast 2, Iona 1.

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