Stanford coach Kyle Smith suggests soccer-style relegation to strengthen ACC NET rankings

Stanford University is known for producing some of the country’s best and brightest. That appears to also now include its men’s basketball coach.

Following the Cardinal’s 78-73 win over fellow Pac-12 import Cal on Wednesday to advance to the ACC Tournament quarterfinals Thursday, first-year Stanford head coach Kyle Smith was asked about the ACC’s dismal NET rankings this season, and he had an interesting suggestion to address it.

In fact, Smith has gone so far as to discuss his idea directly with ACC commissioner Jim Phillips. In those conversations, Smith has proposed the ACC adopt an English soccer-style relegation model similar to the English Premier League.

“I’ve talked to Jim about relegation, so this might be my moment, trying to go two divisions, so you’d have a top play top,” Smith said postgame Wednesday in Charlotte. “They’ll probably be mad I mentioned that, but I do think that would give you more opportunities if you played everyone twice in the top division.

“(It’d be similar to the) Champions and Premier League(s in English soccer) — I’ve been working on this. … You would have two divisions and then at the end of the year, you’d relegate someone, but that top division would play each other twice so you’d get more Quad 1s, and it would be pretty neat.”

Half to the ACC currently ranks outside the Top 100 in NET ranking

Outside of top-ranked Duke, which has the nation’s No. 1 ranking in NET, the next closest ACC team is Clemson and Louisville at 22 and 23, respectively, before falling to North Carolina at No. 36 and SMU at No. 44. That’s just five of the 18 ACC teams in the Top 45 of the NET rankings. In fact, only half of the new-look ACC currently ranks within the Top 100 in NET, including Stanford at No. 82.

Under Smith’s relegation proposal, the ACC would be split into two nine-team divisions based on overall winning percentage with the worst team in the top division being relegated to the bottom division at the end of every season while the best team in the bottom division moves up to replace them.

If Smith’s proposal was in place this season, Stanford would be in the mix for relegation, but based entirely on current NET rankings, Florida State and Notre Dame would flip divisions. Smith attributed his program’s NET ranking to its struggles in non-conference play, as well as adjusting to the new reality of the ACC’s new coast-to-coast footprint.

“Yeah, I think, you know, to be honest, we didn’t win enough non-conference games, I think, as a whole. That’s where our NET was down a little bit,” Smith said. “We had the same conversations in the Pac-12. I think we’ll get better. I don’t know. I can’t really tell you. First year in the league, not worried about everyone else as much.

“But yeah, that’s kind of (what) our thought process was — you know, you don’t know these days who’s on your team. You know we’re going to have 15 fresh faces for us. We have long travel, but if you would have told us we were going to go 11-9 in the ACC, you would think you’re in. But we’ve got to get better, and some other teams — we’ve got to be able to have Quad 1s.”