Introducing The Low Major Poll
Here are our top 25 college basketball teams in the 2022-23 preseason
You’re familiar with the Associated Press’ college basketball poll: a weekly ranking of the top 25 teams in the country as voted on by a national sports media panel. Well, introducing The Low Major Poll: an endeavor in which four of our writers, plus our friend Preston Pack of The Wild Pitch, rank the top 25 teams just as the AP pollsters do.
Our voters are the following:
From The Low Major:
David Peterson (@depeterson61): The Low Major staff writer and co-founder, founder of The Late Break. Pepperdine/Minnesota/Chicago State fan with a penchant for underdogs.
Eli Powell (@wellitseli): The Low Major staff writer, co-founder, and point guard. Went to Minnesota and North Carolina but loves the sport more than any one team.
Maddy! (@maddybutsports): D2 school attendee and Summit League aficionado.
Ret: Hides his socials. High Point/Ohio State fan with a love for Skyline.
And our guest voter:
Preston Pack (@PrestonPack): Founder of The Wild Pitch, The So-Con Lowdown, and a writer for Football Outsiders. Oklahoma State fan.
Our inaugural ballot is the preseason edition. Each voter is allowed to utilize their own criteria; there is no limit to what people are allowed to use as their rationale beyond the limits of reason. We all love the sport dearly, watch it routinely, attend games when possible, and have made it a major part of our lives, so our credentials are ironclad.
Without further ado, here’s our preseason poll:
Gonzaga took a clean sweep of the five first-place votes on offer, earning the maximum 125 points. Though the Bulldogs have yet to claim a national title, it’s expected that Mark Few will bring a trophy to Spokane sooner or later. We think.
Houston’s in second despite none of us voting them higher than third, all because Ret hates North Carolina and put them all the way down at 11th.1 Kansas and Kentucky round out the top five as the other two teams to receive second-place votes.
Everyone seems to like Duke and Arkansas except for Eli.2 He’s also the only voter with a master’s degree. Make of that what you will.
Our top Pac-12 team is #9 UCLA, with all five voters more or less agreeing on their placement. David forgot to rank Baylor, which he insists was an accident. If we were to include the points he likely would have given them, they would probably be #6 or #7. Instead, they’re #10. Whoops!
Everyone seems to like Creighton except Eli.3 They still rate as our top Big East team at #11. Top Big Ten team Indiana comes in a couple spots below at #13 despite Preston having them all the way down at #23.4
Nobody seems to know what to make of #15 TCU or #16 San Diego State, two of the highest-variance teams ranked by all five voters. Eli’s the highest on them, pointing to their experience and high-rated defense. Doubters claim they need to see a little more from both teams before placing them in the upper echelon.
#17 Auburn is the highest team to be intentionally left off any pollster’s ballot: David’s. #20 Alabama is the lowest team ranked by all five pollsters.
Everyone but Maddy has #21 Dayton ranked, all of us hoping to see a resurgence reminiscent of the 2019-20 season that never got the fairytale ending it deserved. Then we’ve got a tie for #22 between Michigan and Texas Tech; it’s a little surprising we only have one tie given we only have five voters. Finally, Virginia Tech and Miami (FL) round out the top 25 despite only being ranked on two ballots each.
Preston’s high on Adama Sanogo and UConn, ranking them 17th, but it wasn’t quite enough to raise them above a 26th-place tie with Illinois. Eli was high on Wyoming, but this poll was tabulated before Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year Graham Ike went down with a significant injury, so he now agrees that their placement among the others receiving votes is probably correct.
At the bottom of the table, we’ve got The Dep Zone and the Maddy Team of the Week. David likes to fill the bottom five spots on his ballot with under-the-radar mid-majors: this week, in addition to Dayton and Wyoming, it’s North Texas and his favorite teams Pepperdine and Chicago State. Maddy usually uses her #25 slot to tip her cap to a team that’s done something worthwhile in the previous week. This is the preseason and nobody’s done anything yet, so she gave the vote to her favorite D1 team, South Dakota.
And there you have it! What do you think? Are we delusional? Are we geniuses? Is everyone else delusional and Eli’s a genius? Let us know in the comments!
And be sure to subscribe to our dear friend Preston’s newsletter The Wild Pitch! We here at The Low Major are huge college basketball fans. If you like our style, but you’re more of a football person, The Wild Pitch is where it’s at.
Ret: “I believe the tourney run was more of a fluke, but it’s a good foundation to build on.”
Eli: “I feel like not enough people are taking into account that Duke lost the literal best coach in the history of college basketball. Scheyer can recruit all he wants, but he’s not Coach K.”
Eli: “Lemme get this straight: Creighton spends all of last season unranked. Literally not a single week in the top 25. Then they get a 9-seed in the Tournament, win in OT against their 8-seed, and lose to their 1-seed. They lose their big transfer, replace him with another big transfer, and now they’re suddenly supposed to be in the top 10? What?”
Preston: “Let’s pump the brakes a bit on Indiana—which went 5-9 in February and March—though the returns are pretty encouraging.”
preston pack only good voter confirmed