KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After fighting its way through the toughest college basketball tournament in the nation to claim the red banner, Georgetown (Ky.) sat atop the NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball Rankings in the preseason edition, released on Wednesday. The Tigers enter the 2019-20 season after a year that they went 33-4.

The Master’s (Calif.) finished tied for fourth in the final poll in 2018-19, but have improved to No. 2 in the early season edition. Wayland Baptist (Texas) checked-in at No. 3, while William Penn (Iowa) made a 19-place jump from No. 23 to No. 4. Pikeville (Ky.) rounded-out the top five with 191 points.

Top 25 Highlights (historical information dates back to 2000)

• Georgetown received all nine first-place votes.
• The Tigers won their third NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship in 2019. The team will open the season with an exhibition against University of Kentucky at Rupp Arena on Sunday. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
• The Master’s (Calif.) will open with a pair of former NAIA schools in Concordia (Calif.) and Azuza Pacific (Calif.) in exhibition action before kicking off the season at home against Occidental College.
• Wayland Baptist entered the top five for the first time since February 26, 2019 when it was tied for fifth with Stillman (Okla.)
• After finishing 1-1 in the 2019 Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship, William Penn (Iowa) jumped to No. 4 after earning top billing in the Heart of America Athletic Conference ratings.
• Former member Mountain State (W.Va.) owns the most No. 1-rankings with 48, followed by Robert Morris (Ill.) (24) and Georgetown (Ky.) (18). LSU Alexandria is next on the list with 16 while former NAIA member Concordia (Calif.) is at 12.
• Pikeville (Ky.) owns the longest active streak in the Top 25, which is now at 75 consecutive polls.

Poll Methodology:

• The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and Association of Independent Institutions.
• The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each voter ranks the best teams. A team receives 30 points for each first-place vote, 29 for second-place and so on through the list.
• The highest and lowest ranking for each team (a non-rating is considered a low ratings) is removed and the team’s ranking will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot (including discounted ballots) that the teams appears on.
• Teams that receive only one point in the ballot are not considered “receiving votes”
• Frequency of polls occur bi-weekly. This policy was approved by the National Administrative Council (NAC) beginning in the 2016-17 academic season. This change will allow raters the opportunity to consider a larger body of work in between rating periods.
• For the complete Top 25 calendar, click here.

2019-20 NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll – Preseason (Oct. 23, 2019)

Dropped from the Top 25: Tougaloo (Miss.), Missouri Baptist, Carroll (Mont.), John Brown (Ark.), William Jessup (Calif.), Bethel (Tenn.), St. Thomas (Texas), Oklahoma City

Others Receiving Votes: Hope International (Calif.) 36, Bethel (Tenn.) 33, Xavier (La.) 31, SAGU (Texas) 22, Dillard (La.) 20, Central Baptist (Ark.) 16, Carroll (Mont.) 15, Life (Ga.) 7, Oklahoma City 5.