Hawkeyes Rank 10th All-Time in ESPN/Sagarin Rankings

Oct. 5, 2009

IOWA CITY, IA — ESPN released its college basketball encyclopedia Monday and inside it included its ESPN/Sagarain all-time rankings, which slots the University of Iowa tenth.

The Big Ten Conference boasted eight programs in the top 20, including five in the top ten: Indiana (5), Illinois (6), Purdue (8), Ohio State (9), Iowa (10), Michigan (13), Minnesota (14) and Michigan State (15).

Iowa has been to 22 NCAA Tournaments, including three Final Four appearances, four Elite Eight trips and eight Sweet 16 appearances, five NIT appearances, eight Big Ten championships, 17 all-americans, 23 all-Big Ten honorees, and an all-time record of 1,466-1,006.

According to the rankings, only active Division I programs are listed in the all-time rankings. CHESS (named for the system of rating chess players) considers only a school’s wins and losses. PREDICTOR considers only its scoring margin. RATING is a combination of the two. YRS indicates the number of seasons in which the program qualified for ranking, beginning in 1937-38 (the maximum number is 72). Schools that played fewer than five games against other qualified schools during a season did not qualify for that season, nor did schools that did not field teams or were on NCAA probation. A small penalty was assessed to a team’s rating for every season in which it failed to qualify.

ESPN.com college basketball writer Andy Katz reacts the all-time rankings, which were released Monday morning on its web site. Click HERE to read his reaction and comments from coaches around the country, which include Iowa Head Coach Todd Lickliter.

Click HERE to view the ESPN/Sagarin All-Time Rankings.

The Iowa Hawkeye basketball team will meet with the media Monday, Oct. 12, for Media Day in Carver-Hawkeye Arena to kickoff the 2009-10 season.