NCAA Basketball: Why can’t teams hold onto the top spot in the Top-25?

This NCAA Basketball season has proven to already be one of the most unpredictable times in recent memory. The carousel at the top of the rankings is a main reason why this season has been much different from those of the past.

Most NCAA Basketball fans can’t wait until March rolls around every year so that they can watch the madness unfold in the 68 team NCAA Tournament. As the new year rolls around though, fans have not had to wait until March to get a piece of the drama that the college game provides.

If you are a fan of Kentucky, Duke, Michigan State, Louisville or Kansas, you have experienced your team gain the top spot just to lose it a week or two later.

There have been big upsets of #1 teams like Evansville over Kentucky or Stephen F. Austin over Duke, and there have been more manageable losses such as Louisville to Texas Tech or Michigan State losing to then #2 Kentucky to begin the year. Why has no one been able to keep this top spot for an extended period of time though?

For me, it all starts with the fact that there is not one dominant team in college basketball this season. In year’s past, there have been many teams that everyone knew would be there towards the end (i.e. Duke last year). This year though, with many deeper conferences being a main reason, the top-25 has been a roller coaster of emotions for anyone associated with a team possibly in the rankings that week.

In all reality, this idea of no unstoppable team is what most college basketball fans are happy with. Yes, you still have the blue bloods who you expect to be (and most of the time are) good such as Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina and Michigan State, but it seems to me that better teams and a higher level of competition have been one of the main reasons why no one has been able to stay at the top very long.

Take Maryland and the Big Ten for example.

The Terps have been top-15 all year but have two (should have been three) losses on their record so far this year. Although they have only played two Big Ten games, the Terps needed a Anthony Cowan Jr. logo three-point shot to beat Illinois at home. The next game the Terrapins dropped their first game of the year to then unranked Penn State.

While the Illini and Nittany Lions are much improved this season, this stretch of two games showed that the Big Ten is at least two teams deeper when it comes to the amount of teams the Big Ten could send to the big dance in March.

The ACC, who has had two teams fall from the top spot already this season due to upsets, has 13 of their 15 teams with a record above .500. Even the bottom half of the ACC standings include usual upper half teams North Carolina, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech, the latter of whom has already knocked off Michigan State in the Maui Invitational.

In just about every major conference in college basketball this year the level of competition has risen which may be a major player into no one being able to stake claim to the top spot for very long.

Newly-minted #1 Gonzaga, arguably to the most consistent team for years, has proven to the country that they deserve the chance to be, and stay at, the top for the foreseeable future. One might use the excuse that they play in a much smaller conference where “they don’t play anyone” and Mark Few and the ‘Zags have proven those people wrong too. Wins against Arizona, North Carolina, Oregon and Washington have shown that they belong where they stand. A strong year for the WCC including five teams with 11 or more wins (not including Gonzaga) helps make the case for arguably the best team west of the Mississippi.

While the #1 spot may (and probably will) change many more times throughout the course of the year, this season has definitely proven one thing, no one is safe this year in college basketball.