With Selection Sunday coming up, the only remaining drama for BYU men's basketball is what seed they will get. For BYU women's basketball, however, there’s a lot more drama. According to Charlie Creme, the Joe Lunardi of women's basketball, BYU is the first team out. The biggest knock against the Lady Cougars is that they have no Quad 1 wins, but does that really tell the whole story?
In women's basketball, a Quad 1 win is a home win over a NET top 25 team, a neutral win over a top 35 team, or a road win over a top 45 team. BYU has home wins against number 31 Texas Tech and number 33 Iowa State, a neutral site win over number 41 Virginia Tech, and a road win against number 51 Arizona State. That’s four wins that are just barely not Quad 1 wins.
Overall, BYU (22-11) has nine wins over teams with NET rankings of 60 or better. Of the four teams in Charlie Creme’s last four in, two of them, Virginia (19-11) and Arizona State (24-10), each have five such wins, and the other two, Nebraska (18-12) and Richmond (26-7), each have three. I won't argue too hard against Richmond because they actually have the best strength of schedule out of all teams outside the power 5, but BYU has a better record than Nebraska and Virginia, and they beat Arizona State twice.
You can debate the metrics. You can split hairs on the bubble.
— BYU Cougars (@BYUCougars) March 9, 2026
But if you’ve watched this team play, you know.
•8 Q2 wins
•7-1 against bubble teams
•5 straight wins entering March@byuwbb is a tournament team. pic.twitter.com/2qI2UPAGoX
So even if the NET rankings were fair, it is not hard to argue that BYU should be in, but when we take a closer look at how they work, it becomes even clearer that BYU deserves better. In spite of the fact that the Big 12 is 8-4 against the ACC and 6-4 against the Big 10, there are 14 Big 10 teams and 7 ACC teams that have a better NET strength of schedule ranking than Iowa State, which has the best strength of schedule ranking in the Big 12.
As a result, in the overall NET rankings, the Big 10 has eight teams in the top 25, the ACC has five, and the Big 12 only has two. This means Virginia and Nebraska had a lot more of their conference games counted as Quad 1 games despite the fact that BYU is in a stronger conference, according to what has happened on the court. If the NET rankings were more accurate, BYU's home wins against Iowa St and Texas Tech and their road win against Arizona State would all be Quad 1 wins.
But unfortunately, I don't expect the committee to notice any of this. They'll probably just see the zero Quad 1 wins and leave BYU out without giving it a second thought.