ESPN has rated the Gonzaga Bulldogs the No. 2 team in the nation in its first preseason edition of the BPI Rankings. The Kansas Jayhawks are rated as the top team overall.
Although, generally speaking, rankings don’t mean very much, the BPI is ESPN’s attempt at a better analysis than the RPI. It was created in 2011 with the help of Dean Oliver, the guru of modern basketball analytics, and is generally walking in lockstep with other ranking systems like KenPom.
The preseason metric balances the quantity of experience on the record, the quality of experience, recruiting rankings for incoming freshman, and the coach’s past performance.