Sports Illustrated’s 2016–17 preview is guided by data from our College Basketball Projection System, a collaboration between economist Dan Hanner and SI’s Luke Winn and Jeremy Fuchs. We project teams on a player-by-player, lineup-based level and then simulate the season 10,000 times to generate our 1–351 national rankings and conference forecasts.
We have already projected player statistics and standings for the ACC, A-10, American, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC. Now we turn to the six teams outside of those conferences our projections believe are most likely to be contenders.