Fans, we are happy to report that your Virginia Tech Hokies are back in the land of college basketball rankings. After an impressive win against Clemson and a barrage of 3’s against Coppin State, Virginia Tech find themself back in the rankings mix, most notably #24 in the AP Top 25. 

First, our model has the Hokies at #34, which is fairly aligned with other ranking models. Our model uses margin of victory, which is hurting the Hokies rating, mostly due to the Penn State game. This should self correct after working through a couple more non-conference games. 

Human polls have split on the Hokies. While their average human poll ranking is #25, they are notably absent from many polls including Andy Katz and CBS. Honestly, given the depths of those polls, I honestly think it was an oversight. For Andy Katz to not include them as a top 36 team after the Clemson win is criminal and makes me wonder if he owns a TV.

Computer polls are still more weary of this team, but the ratings are slowly improving. The computer poll overage is #34. In Kenpom, VT has equal offense and defense ratings, speaking to the balance of the attack. Most interesting here is actually the rankings of Hokie opponents. The lineup of Villanova, Clemson and Penn St. are all commonly found in the top 20 of computer models. Also, USF is easily in the top 100. There is no doubt that the quality of wins this season is impressive. This speaks loudest in the ESPN BPI poll. While the Hokies are only #36, they are #15 in resume and strength of record, which is a measure of how likely a team would have their record against our schedule. AKA, Mike Young’s team is crushing it.

Virginia Tech Rankings (12/21/2020)
Poll	Rank	Notes
EVTB Ranking Model	34	Our model aligns fairly closely with other models, margin of victory dings the Hokie from rating higher
NCAA NET	–	Not published yet
AP Top 25	24	After a brief Top 25 hiatus, the Hokies are back at #24 with 181 votes
Coaches Poll	25	Hokies holding steady at #26 with 42 votes
Goodman Top 25	25	Clemson win scored the Hokies big points in this poll
Rothstein 45	23	“Mike Young. Poppin’ like Orville Redenbacher.”
Katz Power 36	–	Katz has us unranked (shame!), but Clemson remains ranked, clear oversight
ESPN BPI	36	Hokies hold strong and receive more recognition from their Strength of Record which is #15
CBS	–	No love, someone buy them and ACC Network subscription
Bracketology	11 seed	Last 4 In and in an 11 seed play in game
Kenpom	37	Exact equal offensive and defensive ratings showing the balance
Massey Composite	37	Rankings range from a high of 15 (Pugh) to a low of 67 (Joby Nitty Gritty)
College Basketball Reference	34	Big drop from the VMI game
RPI	25	Hokies have 3 quadrant 1 wins, 2 top 20 wins and 1 top 15 loss
Reddit	27	Hokies garner more respect from The Internet’s Student Section with 181 votes
Average	30	Go Hokies!

*Notes about each poll we track*

EVTB Ranking Model:This is our proprietary ranking model. While it is useful to compare teams, its goal is really to project the NCAA field. It tends to be very bouncy in November and December and gets better as more games are played. It often differs from other ranking models.

NCAA NET: This is the model the NCAA uses for seeing. It has not been released yet, but we will update once it drops.

AP Top 25: The traditional poll made up of journalist votes. This poll is the most cited ranking.

Coaches Poll: The traditional poll made up of coach votes. To put it nicely, coaches are not great at ranking teams and tend to copy other polls and cluster based on recency. It’s worth noting that Mike Young does not vote in this poll.

Goodman: A single-person poll that uses no preseason or anchoring effect. It changes from day to day based on what you have done, not the name on your jersey. 

Rothstein: A single-person poll that blends preseason and actual game results.

Katz Power 36: A single-person poll that blends preseason and actual game results.

CBS: A single-person poll that blends preseason and actual game results.

Bracketology: A single-person NCAA tournament prediction. This is not a ranking. It is projecting the NCAA field based on priors and actual game results. It updates on an irregular schedule, so often can be out of date.

Kenpom: The gold standard in statistical computer models and Hokie alum. Kenpom relies on offensive and defensive efficiency to rank teams.

Massey Composite: A composite average of 25 computer models. We are lobbying to get EVTB included.

College Basketball Reference: A simple rating system based on point differential and strength of schedule. This really simple model tends to find 90% of the same result as the mega models above. 

RPI: The nearly forgotten dinosaur of rankings. We include it, because it is often cited, but pretty much everyone (NCAA doesn’t even use it anymore) agrees there are much better options out there.

Reddit: This is a weekly fan poll. We often cite journalists and computers, but why not the most important part of the game… FANS! This gives us a chance to hear their voice.