Top 25 Coaches Poll Breakdown

We get DM’s all of the time from people who have information that they would like to see us cover. While we aren’t able to use every idea, we do read them and one of the ideas was to do a Top 25 breakdown by leagues and other fun tidbits of information for the public. First off, in case you missed the release of the NAIA Coaches Poll, here it is:

2021-22 NAIA Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll Four (January 12, 2022)

RANK	LAST WEEK	SCHOOL [1st Place Votes]	RECORD	FINAL POINTS
1	1	Loyola (La.) [21]	16-0	591
2	5	William Penn (Iowa)	14-1	553
3	3	Talladega (Ala.)	13-1	542
4	8	William Jessup (Calif.)	18-1	537
5	4	Oklahoma Wesleyan	16-1	518
6	2	Carroll (Mont.)	16-2	499
7	9	Indiana Wesleyan	15-3	477
8	10	Arizona Christian	17-2	464
9	7	Grace (Ind.)	16-2	425
10	13	Thomas More (Ky.)	13-2	406
11	12	Jamestown (N.D.)	16-3	392
12	6	SAGU (Texas)	11-3	387
13	18	College of Idaho	14-3	340
14	14	LSU Alexandria (La.)	9-1	333
15	16	Science & Arts (Okla.)	12-3	301
16	22	Marian (Ind.)	12-2	277
17	21	Georgetown (Ky.)	12-2	247
18	25	Hope International (Calif.)	13-3	227
19	15	Xavier (La.)	10-2	211
20	17	Lewis-Clark State (Idaho)	13-4	173
21	25	Saint Francis (Ind.)	14-4	168
22	24	Indiana South Bend (Ind.)	12-3	167
23	RV	WVU Tech (W.Va.)	15-2	156
24	RV	Southeastern (Fla.)	15-3	130
25	23	Concordia (Neb.)	15-4	113

Dropped from the Top 25: Central Methodist (Mo.), Stillman (Ala.), Kansas Wesleyan

Others Receiving Votes: Faulkner (Ala.) 106, Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) 101, Central Methodist (Mo.) 96, Stillman (Ala.) 75, Texas Wesleyan 65, Bethel (Kan.) 63, Southwestern (Kan.) 43, Montana Tech 40, Florida College 31, Oregon Tech 17, Northwestern (Iowa) 14, Alice Lloyd (Ky.) 11, Pikeville (Ky.) 10, Menlo (Calif.) 8, Tennessee Wesleyan 7, Kansas Wesleyan 6, Rochester (Mich.) 4, Indiana Tech 4.

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Top 25 Breakdown

• 14 of the 21 NAIA Conferences are represented in the NAIA Top 25
  • Led by the Crossroads League with 4 teams and then the GSAC with 3 teams.
  • There are two teams each from the Cascade, GPAC, Mid-South, Red River, Sooner and the SSAC.
  • Three leagues have two teams inside the Top 10:
    • SSAC
      • #1 Loyola
      • #3 Talladega
    • GSAC
      • #4 William Jessup
      • #8 Arizona Christian
    • Crossroads League
      • #7 Indiana Wesleyan
      • #9 Grace
  • The only leagues not represented: AMC, AAC, CalPac, CAC, GCAC, NSAA and WHAC.
  • Only two newcomers to the poll this week as we see WVU Tech and Southeastern (FL) inside the Top 25 this week.
  • Conference Top 25 Voting Breakdown:
    • AMC: NONE
    • AAC: RV Tennessee Wesleyan
    • CalPac: NONE
    • Cascade: #13 College of Idaho, #20 Lewis-Clark St., RV Oregon Tech
    • CCAC: #22 IU South Bend, RV Olivet Nazarene
    • CAC: RV Florida College
    • Crossroads: #7 Indiana Wesleyan, #9 Grace, #16 Marian, #21 St Francis
    • Frontier: #6 Carroll, RV Montana Tech
    • GCAC: NONE
    • GPAC: #11 Jamestown, #25 Concordia (NE), RV Northwestern
    • GSAC: #4 William Jessup, #8 Arizona Christian, #18 Hope International, RV Menlo
    • Heart: #2 William Penn, RV Central Methodist
    • KCAC: #5 Oklahoma Wesleyan, RV Bethel (KS), RV Southwestern, RV Kansas Wesleyan
    • Mid-South: #10 Thomas More, #17 Georgetown, RV Pikeville
    • NSAA: NONE
    • RRAC: #14 LSU Alexandria, #19 Xavier
    • RSC: #23 WVU Tech, RV Alice Lloyd
    • SAC: #12 SAGU, #15 Science & Arts, RV Texas Wesleyan
    • SSAC: #1 Loyola, #3 Talladega, RV Faulkner, RV Stillman
    • The Sun: #24 Southeastern (FL)
    • WHAC: RV Indiana Tech, RV Rochester
• Top 25 Notes:
  • The flow of the NAIA Top 25 Coaches poll remains pretty similar to what we have seen since the merger. Not to get too caught up with the old divisions, but it is still fun and interesting to look at the dynamics of the merger. The flow of the Top 25 seems to be a lot of former NAIA DI teams at the top with a ton of former DII teams on the backend and a balance of the former divisions within the Poll. You see that with this poll with 7 of the Top 10 teams former DI members and all five teams from 20-25 are former DII teams. All of that with 14 former DI teams and 11 former DII teams making up the Top 25. This “flow” has been pretty consistent since last seasons merger to one division.
  • The NAIA’s three longest Top 25 streaks remain intact:
    • Indiana Wesleyan – 102 straight polls
    • Georgetown (KY) – 91 straight polls
    • William Penn (IA) – 56 straight polls
  • The first ARC and RPI Ratings of the year will be out next week. We will go into further breakdown in this segment going forward once we have that information!