College basketball power rankings: Mississippi State crashes top five, Florida and Tennessee out of top 10

A week that saw the three final undefeated teams lose — two by a lot (OU to Alabama and Tennessee to Florida) and one by a little (Florida to Kentucky) — prompts major changes in this week’s college basketball power rankings. While Auburn is holding firm at its No. 1 spot once again, the order of the refreshed top 10 is almost entirely brand new.

SEC losses, however, turned out to be SEC wins in this week’s rankings. In place of falling Tennessee and Florida this week is Mississippi State and Texas A&M, up to Nos. 3 and No. 4 behind Auburn and Iowa State, after a week in which each proved themselves both at home on the road.

The Bulldogs were the biggest riser this week from unranked to No. 3 as a course correction after narrowly missing the power rankings in recent weeks. Their 35-point win over South Carolina on Saturday and 12-point road win over Vanderbilt on Tuesday was proof positive of their credentials as a team worthy of overdue shine.

Texas A&M also had to earn its highest ranking of the season the hard way with a win at home and another on the road. The former came relatively easy vs. Texas to open SEC play over the weekend, but the latter was far from it. The Aggies had to overcome an 18-point deficit on Wednesday in Norman with a furious rally that ended in an 80-78 win. They’ve now won nine-straight dating back to November.

There’s much to unpack in the latest power rankings, so let’s dive in with the rankings guidelines as we always do and make clear how we operate in this space. I promise to abide by these as closely as I can throughout the season. 

Power Rankings definition: Ranking teams with an emphasis on recent performance based on their level of competition. These are heavily unscientific in nature and can be distilled down to a “vibes” ranking — with things like margin of victory, injuries, performance vs. top competition, momentum and other sometimes subjective factors weighing into the equation. The power rankings can be thought of in a weekly setting as a reaction — or sometimes even an overreaction — to the small sample of the week that was. 

Let’s get to it.