Memphis beat a preseason ranked opponent, survived a second close game and gained 22 AP ballot placements in the opening week. It still finished four points short of No. 25 Nebraska in the November 9 poll.
The Huskers collected 101 points to the Tigers' 97. Nebraska appeared on four more ballots, 26 to 22, but the detail behind the final margin is more interesting than the inclusion count. On the nine ballots that ranked both teams, Nebraska led 50–42 in points. On ballots that included only one, Memphis led 55–51.
The eight-point Nebraska advantage in the shared group, reduced by Memphis' four-point advantage elsewhere, produced the final four-point gap.
Reid Gives Memphis Two Results to Bring to the Poll
Memphis beat preseason No. 18 Iowa State 80–76 on November 2, with Jayden Reid scoring 26 points. The Tigers followed it with an 89–88 win over VCU on November 7. Reid scored 32 in that game and made the two free throws that supplied the winning margin.
Those wins changed Memphis' standing considerably. No preseason voter had ranked it. Twenty-two of the same 59 voters included it this week, accounting for all 97 of its points; the panel's additional voter omitted both Memphis and Nebraska. Iowa State, meanwhile, fell from No. 18 to outside the top 25.
Nebraska also brought a 2–0 record. It opened with a 106–64 win over Le Moyne, then beat Providence 67–58. Pryce Sandfort scored 25 against the Friars, whom Nebraska held to 30.6% shooting.
The two teams reached the cutoff with different opening results. Those results give each a case for inclusion; the poll reveals how the submitted rankings turned those cases into points.
Where Nebraska Found the Margin
AP awards 25 points for first, descending to one for 25th. A team omitted from a ballot receives zero points. Both how often a team appears and how high it is placed affect the total.
Memphis' average placement on the 22 ballots that include it was 21.59, slightly higher than Nebraska's 22.12 on 26 ballots. Those averages describe different groups of supporters. They do not compare the two teams across the entire electorate, where omissions also affect the score.
The overlapping group offers a direct comparison. Six of the nine voters who rank both teams put Nebraska higher; three put Memphis higher. Their combined placements produce Nebraska's eight-point advantage in that group.
The rest of the scoring runs the other way. Seventeen voters rank Nebraska without Memphis, supplying 51 points. Thirteen rank Memphis without Nebraska, supplying 55. The remaining 21 voters omit both teams.
Nebraska therefore did not win the last ranked place simply because more voters included it. Memphis earned more points from its smaller set of exclusive supporters. Nebraska's advantage where the teams shared a ballot was enough to overcome that difference.
Memphis' opening week has already changed it from a team with no preseason placements into one with support from more than a third of the panel. Its immediate task is to broaden that support or earn higher placements from the voters who already rank it. Nebraska's four-point edge shows how close Memphis came, while the shared ballots identify the comparative ground it still has to gain.
Sources & Methodology
AP preseason ballots and Week 1 ballots supply all rankings, points and inclusion counts. The Week 1 electorate has 60 ballots, including all 59 preseason voters. Points are partitioned into both-ranked, Nebraska-only, Memphis-only and neither groups; no replacement ballot is assumed. Ranked-only averages exclude omissions and use separate denominators, 26 and 22. The Memphis game center confirms Saturday, November 7, for VCU; the recap's reference to Sunday is inconsistent with that record. School recaps linked above supply game results and player statistics.
Memphis
Nebraska
