Box Score Complete Basketball Times' Study 
MATTHEWS, N.C. - Belmont University men's basketball has been ranked as the No. 7 college basketball program in America, according to Basketball Times in its 'Top Programs' edition for 2017.
Basketball Times, the official publication of the United States Basketball Writers Association of America (USBWA), every five years undertakes an exhaustive comparative analysis of college basketball programs.
The initial standard for consideration is winning at least two-thirds of all games played over the past 10 seasons, which narrowed 351 NCAA Division I programs to 35.
From there, Basketball Times used six equally weighted criteria: winning percentage, number of NBA players, federal graduation rate, U.S. News & World Report academic peer assessment, program cleanliness, and head coach ranking.
The criteria are subjective, but discreet polls are designed to reduce individual bias. Points were awarded on a sliding scale, from 35 points for a first-place vote to one point for a last-place vote, with 350 being the highest possible cumulative score.
Basketball Times created a 10-member panel of the most experienced and respected college basketball journalists in the country: Nicole Auerbach, Rick Bozich, Ken Davis, Blair Kerkhoff, Angela Lento, Mike Lopresti, Randy McClure, Kevin McNamara, Mike Waters and Dick "Hoops" Weiss.
As anticipated, Belmont scored well across the board, including first in federal graduation rate, fourth in program cleanliness, 10th in head coach ranking, and 11th in USNWR academic peer assessment.
Belmont's overall ranking of seventh is up four spots from the 2012 Basketball Times report.
2017 Basketball Times 'Top Programs' Rankings
Overall ranking
(Lowest to highest average)
1. Duke 3.5
2. Notre Dame 9.3
3. Wisconsin 9.5
4. Gonzaga 10.2
5. Villanova 10.5
6. Davidson 12.2
7. Belmont 12.3
8. Michigan State 12.5
9. Butler 13.0
10. Kansas 13.3
11. North Carolina 13.7
12. (tie) Purdue 15.2
Saint Mary's 15.2
14. Arizona 15.5
15. (tie) Florida 16.0
Xavier 16.0
17. Ohio State 16.7
18. Kentucky 17.5
19. BYU 17.7
20. Syracuse 19.5
21. Wichita State 19.8
22. UCLA 20.0
23. Pittsburgh 20.2
24. VCU 20.8
25. Memphis 21.0
26. Louisville 21.2
27. Vermont 21.8
28. Dayton 22.0
29. Baylor 24.0
30. Stephen F. Austin 24.5
31. Connecticut 24.7
32. Murray State 25.0
33. New Mexico 25.8
34. San Diego State 26.2
35. Akron 30.7
Belmont University men's basketball has earned postseason 11 of the last 12 seasons, including seven automatic berths to the NCAA Tournament. The Bruins have won 16 conference championships since 2006 - third-most nationally over that span (Gonzaga, Kansas). Belmont is one of only seven NCAA Division I programs outside the Power 5 to post Top 100 RPIs seven consecutive seasons (BYU, Gonzaga, Saint Mary's (CA), San Diego State, VCU, Wichita State). Belmont is one of only 12 NCAA Division I programs to win 19 or more games 12 consecutive seasons (Akron, BYU, Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina, San Diego State, VCU and Wisconsin). Belmont University men's basketball boasts an NCAA-leading 15 CoSIDA Academic All-America selections since 2001 and is one of only three NCAA Division I programs to make the NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) Honor Roll every year of existence.
