Below are the preseason Collegehoops.net rankings for our opponents followed by last years' RPI. They have not yet ranked North Carolina or Syracuse, but ESPN/USA has them at 2 and 20, respectively. You could certainly argue about many of the rankings, but that 175 ranking for UTEP sticks out and seems ridiculous. It will be interesting to see who is favored in the first game?
Team 06-07 Preview 05-06 CollegeHoops. RPI Net North Carolina ? 12 Syracuse ? 17 Villanova 24 2 Drexel 55 129 Penn 82 98 Fordham 86 134 Seton Hall 110 58 Temple 124 74 St. Joe's 136 43 UIC 145 133 Princeton 154 199 Monmouth 171 144 UTEP 175 76 Brown 181 273 Yale 199 197 Columbia 223 289 La Salle 234 103 Elon 236 172 Cornell 255 207 St. Francis, NY 268 271 Harvard 278 214 Navy 300 298 Dartmouth 313 311 Fl Gulf Coast
Drexel seems to be a bit over-rated (just a bit -- they're going to be good) and LaSalle a bit under-rated (they're young, but very talented and well coached for a change).