Bart Torvik Rankings 2027

[mrswiss21]

Bart torvik posted his 2027 rankings. For the MVC, he has bradley at #9 (seems to low). Personally, I think he has northern iowa, indiana state, and drake to high.

Valpo is a little low for me too, and UIC doesnt have great post play so dont know if I would have them at #1... What does everyone think? Curious to know...

 

[Da Coach]

One possible reason Bradley is picked so low-
Bart Torvik's algorithm tries to analyze teams in the preseason based on the performances of the returning players plus the new incoming players from the portal. However, Torvik's algorithm does not include stats from games involving non-D1 teams, nor does he include stats of incoming transfer players from non-D1 schools. He has always only tracked D1 teams & players,
Here was an answer he posted to a question he was asked--


I'm guessing that his current ranking doesn't count any predicted 2026-27 production by Georgi Gerganov, Kyle Grill, Noah Williams, Ben Thornbrue, Race Kowalczyk, or either of the Bradley redshirted players. And it would not count the numbers Trevon Payton had at D2 Limestone University. There are other factors that make his preseason prediction inaccurate, such as counting transfer players who need waivers, but who are not likely to get them.

 

[yoda]

but Payton hasn't played at D2 in two years
and the ranking does pretty much parallell the number of returning starters each team has...

 

[Da Coach]

Murray State has just 3 returning players from their 2025-26 roster- Roman Domon (14.2 ppg), Mathis Courbon (4.6 ppg), and Braydon Shorter(5.7 ppg), and none of them were regular starters (Domon did start 9 games late in the season).
Yet Barttorvik rates them #2 in the MVC. His algorithm is counting the past D1 production of their incoming portal transfers and redshirt players, not just the ~24 points per game of the three returners.

And Barttorvik's algorithm uses production numbers for returning players plus portal transfers going back more than just this past season. It counts production for previous seasons as well.
So as I posted, for Bradley, the Barttorvik formula counts Trevon Payton's 10.0 ppg this past season at UAPB, but does not count any of his previous seasons at D2 Limestone University, and doesn't count any other D2 production, juco production, or from high school or foreign players.

 

[64NIT]

I don't look at any of the rankings that are available until at least a month into the season. Before then, and especially before the season has even started, they are worthless and a waste of time.

 

[Braves2006]

I don't look at any of the rankings that are available until at least a month into the season. Before then, and especially before the season has even started, they are worthless and a waste of time.

I agree. However I do take stock in the preseason MVC picks as the conference has a quite a bit better grasp on what the teams have done in the offseason.