CBB With Danny Z: Kansas, Tennessee and USC lead another human polls vs. analytics argument

College basketball’s preseason rankings reveal significant disagreements between human polls (AP and Coaches) and analytical models (KenPom and TeamRankings). Teams like Kansas, USC, Tennessee, and Iowa State show the largest splits, with computers often ranking them higher than human voters. This series aims to track these discrepancies throughout the season to see which prediction methods prove most accurate.

• The article compares preseason college basketball rankings from human polls (AP and Coaches) with analytical models (KenPom and TeamRankings).
• Significant disagreements exist for teams like Kansas, USC, Tennessee, Iowa State, Alabama, and Houston, with analytical models generally ranking them higher than human polls.
• Last season’s results are used as a reference, showing that human voters may place more weight on how teams finished the previous year, while models focus on projected performance.
• The series intends to follow these rankings throughout the season to evaluate the accuracy of human versus computer predictions.