NCAA Basketball: Updated early top-25 power rankings for 2020-21 season

We’ve reached the month of June in the NCAA Basketball offseason. Who are the top teams heading into 2020-21 after the latest transfer and NBA Draft decisions?

The overall impact of Covid-19 has changed the calendars for essentially all Spring and Summer sports in the year 2020. That includes the NBA, who has been trying to complete their 2019-20 season and seems to have found a plan to restart in late July and finish around October. That’s great to hear for fans but there is a domino effect to consider for NCAA Basketball.

Normally in the month of June, we would be having the NBA Finals played and right after, the NBA Draft. Of course, that’s going to be delayed, with the draft likely occurring around September/October, if not later than that. There’s still confusion for all of the graduating seniors and early departures from college, who thus far, has only conducted zoom interviews with interested programs.

There aren’t any in-person workouts occurring, which is harmful to many players on the cut-line of getting drafted or getting a training camp invite. The NBA is hoping to get those going again in a couple of months, which is why the NCAA made the decision to extend the deadline for early draft entrants to come back to school, which was originally set for June 3.

That means we as NCAA Basketball fans and observers, still don’t have a real idea as to who will be a part of the 2020-21 season. A number of players have already made decisions but there still are more in the process that can impact preseason polls.

Besides the NBA Draft decisions, there has been plenty of transfer and high school reclassifications. It’s important to note that the NCAA has declined to grant the one-time waiver rule for transfers for this offseason, so expect a number of requests for immediate eligibility. There are several teams who could get a huge boost depending on the individual rulings.

For this piece, I’ll be looking at the current up to date rosters, viewing all sit-out transfers as unavailable for next season until officially changed. So players such as Mac McClung and Olivier Sarr aren’t taken into account for this still very early top-25 power rankings. For those who are eligible and still with their teams, here’s how I view the top projected programs.