ESPN’s Basketball Power Index is a mess: Auburn not in top 2, Mizzou outside top 30

ESPN’s Basketball Power Index (BPI) is having a tough time making sense of this men’s college basketball season, it seems.

As the Auburn Tigers continue to steamroll (almost) everyone in their path, and as the Missouri Tigers continue to rack up top-5 wins (Auburn and Mizzou each have 3 now, for the record), they aren’t getting the respect they deserve.

Here’s the latest iteration of the ESPN BPI. Duke is No. 1, followed by Houston at No. 2 and Auburn at No. 3. Let’s check in with where every SEC squad stands heading into Saturday’s slate of games:

• No. 3 — Auburn
• No. 4 — Tennessee
• No. 6 — Florida
• No. 8 — Alabama
• No. 14 — Kentucky
• No. 17 — Texas A&M
• No. 28 — Ole Miss
• No. 30 — Texas
• No. 31 — Mississippi State
• No. 32 — Mizzou
• No. 41 — Arkansas
• No. 45 — Georgia
• No. 52 — Oklahoma
• No. 54 — Vanderbilt
• No. 61 — LSU
• No. 83 — South Carolina

To add insult to injury for Mizzou fans, rival Kansas checks in at No. 11 despite Mizzou’s head-to-head win and the Jayhawks’ string of increasingly embarrassing losses.

Maybe 3-4 more wins over top-5 programs will get Auburn and Mizzou the respect they deserve from the Basketball Power Index. We’ll see.

Adam Spencer

Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.