The Boise State basketball team fell in surprise fashion to Division 2 opponent Hawaii Pacific during its season opener. That loss will not show up in the NET rankings.
It will, however, have a potential impact on the team’s future NCAA Tournament resume. Let’s break down the unique situation.
The Broncos hosted the Sharks in non-conference play to kick off the 2025-26 season. It was expected to be an easy win.
Boise State entered as a fringe Top 25 team, receiving votes in the preseason AP Poll. That hype came after the program recorded its fourth-straight 20-win season.
Last year’s bunch was on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. The three years prior, the Broncos made the March Madness field. Head coach Leon Rice is hoping to get his team back to the Big Dance. He hit an early speedbump.
Boise State fell victim to a basketball upset.
Maybe the worst loss in the history of Boise State basketball. Broncos fall to D2 Hawaii Pacific, 79-78.
No words. Stunned silence as fans leave the building. Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/KHqzOwISPO
— B.J. Rains (@BJRains) November 4, 2025
Hawaii Pacific spoiled the Broncos’ season opener with a 79-78 victory. It silenced that preseason hype in Game 1.
The Sharks were not supposed to compete on the same level as the home team. This was a tune-up game for Boise State – until it wasn’t!
Hawaii Pacific plays in Division 2. It went 15-14 last year with a 10-10 mark in its conference slate. They played David to Goliath on Monday.
Fans immediately thought about potential postseason ramifications. How will the loss impact Boise State’s resume?
What are NET Rankings?
Introduced in the 2018-19 season for men’s basketball and the 2020-21 season for women’s basketball, NET rankings replaced the Rating Percentage Index — known as the RPI — as the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Committees‘ primary sorting tool for evaluating teams.
The NET is designed to be optimal in March, not in early December. It is first released in December each year due to demand from the NCAA membership, media and fans. There are going to be more outliers early in the season because of the limited data available, more so than what you might see in other metrics that use preseason data as a starting point for those rankings. The NET does not use any data from prior seasons or any preseason rankings or inputs.
The NET rankings are used to sort college basketball teams come postseason play. There are two key components.
First is the ‘Team Value Index,’ which rewards teams for beating quality foes. There are Quad 1, 2, 3, and 4 distinctions for opponents. The higher the quad, the more quality the win.
Second is the ‘Adjusted NET Efficiency.’ This is the difference between a team’s offensive and defensive efficiencies, adjusted for opponent strength and game location.
Teams with higher NET values have better chances of making the NCAA Tournament. Bad losses can be a death sentence come selection time.
Luckily for Boise State, this basketball result will not impact its NET ranking. Non-D1 outcomes are not included in the ratings. The loss will not go completely unnoticed, however.
The loss will still impact the Broncos’ postseason resume.
The non-DI results do in fact appear on the team sheets. They are not factored in the NET but are still part of the overall evaluation of the teams. https://t.co/1G3ml4JcxS
— David Worlock (@DavidWorlock) November 4, 2025
NCAA Director of Media Coordination/Statistics David Worlock attempted to clarify with questions being asked about the Boise State loss.
He confirmed that the loss will not affect the Broncos’ NET ranking. It will be part of the overall team evaluation should Boise State work its way onto the NCAA Tournament bubble, though.
NET rankings play a key role in postseason selection, but it has never been the end-all-be-all.
Other factors are taken into account. Committee members use various resources to form their own opinions, which eventually provide us with tournament seeding.
So, while the awful loss to a D2 basketball opponent will not impact Boise State’s NET ranking, it could have major postseason implications when comparing the Broncos’ resume to another bubble squad.
With that being said, there is still a long season ahead and plenty of time to erase this letdown from memory.
The post Fringe Top 25 Basketball Team Loses To D2 Opponent. Why It Won’t Impact Key NCAA Tournament Metric appeared first on BroBible.
Fringe Top 25 Basketball Team Loses To D2 Opponent. Why It Won’t Impact Key NCAA Tournament Metric
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