Luke Loucks addresses importance of NET Rankings on schedule

Luke Loucks is working on the schedule for his debut season back at his alma mater at Florida State. With that, he is learning all of the dos and don’ts as far as putting one together, namely the effect of the NET Rankings in how they go about it.

Loucks spoke about the new 18-game conference schedule and how that impacts the nonconference scheduling while at the ACC Spring Meetings last week. He said he’s getting an education on it as time goes. And while he’s already realizing what it is to schedule the right games that will help more than hurt a resumé while also making for a good product.

“Yeah, so, and I’m learning all of this,” Loucks said. “It’s all about the NET, right, and the strength of schedule and the Quads – Quad I, II, III, IV.

“Where it gets a little tricky is — and I’ve had so many schools reach out. Every school in Florida – FIU, FAU, UCF, USF. All of them, because it helps them, right? And those games, as much as I want to play them? Sometimes those games don’t help you, right? And no disrespect to any of those schools. But it’s a constant, you know, puzzle to put together of, okay, you’ve got to play great opponents and then you have to have very, very winnable games, right? Those middle grounds? You’ve got to play a couple of them, but that’s where a lot of teams get in trouble is playing those teams in the Quad IIs and Quad IIIs that are, you know – if you win them, doesn’t really do much for you, if you lose them, it destroys you. And so that’s what we’re trying to avoid as we put the schedule together.”

The NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) Ranking has been in use for seven seasons now, with its basis upon the team value index, or the quality of opponent you win or lose to, and the adjusted net efficiency, which comes down to strength of opponent and where you’re playing the game at. That then rates the games in one of four quadrants and, through that, the teams are ranked based on their results in those games.

For example, Florida State finished at No. 90 in the last update to the NET Rankings in ’24-’25. The Seminoles went 17-15 overall in that final season under Leonard Hamilton. That said, FSU was just 3-12 against competition that qualified as Quad I or Quad II, meaning they earned most of their wins against Quad III and Quad IV while also taking three losses against that lower level of competition.

As Loucks said, schedules have to be balanced carefully with opportunities for quality wins without taking too many losses, specifically the bad ones. That’s what he’ll continue to weigh as he tries to get Florida State to a record and a NET rating in his first year that could get them back into the NCAA Tournament.