(photo by Tom Bragg)

Prior to last season, the NCAA did away with the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) system it used to help determine postseason tournament bids in favor of its NET ranking system. The first batch of those rankings for the 2019-2020 college basketball season were released Monday, with West Virginia appearing pretty high up the list.

The Mountaineers check in at No. 12 in the initial NET rankings with a No. 9 Strength of Schedule. Only Kansas, which comes in at No. 2 overall in the NET rankings, has played a tougher schedule (ranked No. 3 in SOS) than WVU among the top 25 teams on the initial list — which will be updated each day for the rest of the season.

WVU also moved up to No. 25 in the KenPom ratings after hovering in the 30s for a while. The Associated Press Top 25 is out this afternoon and it will be interesting to see if West Virginia can crack the list this week after multiple blowout wins — notably against lesser competition — last week. I have a vote in the AP Top 25 and will update this post will all of that information once the poll is released in a few hours.