Editor's note: This has been updated through the end of the 2023-24 season.
From our first poll at the start of the 1999-00 season through today, we've produced a Top 25 men's basketball national ranking more than 250 times. We've had more than 200 teams appear in those rankings but we've never had an easy way to answer the frequent question, "Has this team ever been ranked before?" or "Has this team ever been ranked this highly before?"
Now we do, and so will you, if you download the Top 25 men's basketball archive.
Download archive
The archive is a large Excel spreadsheet that you can download, sort and analyze at will. The default view lists teams according to their ranking in the final poll for the 2023-24 season and then an alphabetical listing of every team that's been ranked. Using Excel's sort feature you can organize them anyway you want.
The first three columns show each team's highest ranking in the Top 25 poll, the number of seasons it has been ranked at least once, and the number of times it has appeared in the poll overall, including preseason and final rankings. The columns highlighted in yellow show any team that was ranked in a particular season. Click on the plus sign at the top of the columns to reveal the week-by-week rankings for that season.
If you're not comfortable with Excel and accidentally mess something up, no worries -- just download the file and try again.
Here are some historical tidbits. We'll update these again at the conclusion of each season.
And if you want to quickly jump from one poll to another online, we still have this listing for you to do so.
A season unlike any other (we hope)
The 2020-21 Division III basketball season was very strange because of the public health problems created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Only a handful of schools played something close to a full 25-game slate. Others played a conference schedule that was often interrupted, and sometimes ended, by the virus. Many teams, particularly on the east coast, did not play at all or only played a few games. Other teams played something approximating a conference season but it was concentrated in a two-month period. There were very few non-conference games and no NCAA Tournament
It was a very strange and difficult year to compare teams. But we published a national ranking eight times to recognize the schools and student athletes who were able to take the court. The first poll was a Top 10, and the other seven polls were Top 15s. Randolph-Macon held the top spot for the full eight-week run. St. Thomas (Minn.), Yeshiva and Dubuque also finished the season as unbeaten ranked teams.
We've included appearances in the 2020-21 rankings in our archive and this list of superlatives.
In the long run
John Carroll and Keene State have the longest active streak of Top 25 appearances, at 28 straight (every poll since Week 1 of the 2022-23 season). Oswego State (23) and Hampden-Sydney (21) rhave the third and fourth longest active runs.
Illinois Wesleyan has appeared in the Top 25 at least once in 24 of 25 seasons.
We're No. 1
Over the poll's 25-year history, 38 programs have reached the top spot at least once. Randolph-Macon and UW-Stevens Point have each reached that spot in seven different seasons. The CCIW has had the most programs reach the top of the rankings -- Augustana, Carthage, Illinois Wesleyan, North Central (Ill.) and Wheaton (Ill.)
Swarthmore became the first men's team to hold the top ranking from the preseason all the way through the final poll, doing so in the 2019-20 season cut short by COVID-19. Randolph-Macon became the second to do so with another COVID shortened season in 2020-21. No one yet has held the top ranking from preseason through the NCAA Tournament.
Here's the year-by-year list of teams that have been ranked No. 1, starting with the preseason selection and ending with the national champion.
| 2023-24 | Christopher Newport, UW-Whitewater, John Carroll, Hampden-Sydney, John Carroll, Hampden-Sydney, Trine |
| 2022-23 | Randolph-Macon, Christopher Newport, St. Joseph (Conn.), Christopher Newport |
| 2021-22 | Randolph-Macon, Yeshiva, Randolph-Macon |
| 2020-21 | Randolph-Macon ** |
| 2019-20 | Swarthmore# |
| 2018-19 | Nebraska Wesleyan, Augustana, Nebraska Wesleyan, UW-Oshkosh |
| 2017-18 | Whitman, Nebraska Wesleyan |
| 2016-17 | Amherst, Babson, Whitman, Babson |
| 2015-16 | Augustana, Whitworth, Augustana, St. Thomas |
| 2014-15 | UW-Whitewater, Augustana, UW-Whitewater, Washington U., Augustana, UW-Whitewater, Randolph-Macon, UW-Stevens Point |
| 2013-14 | Amherst, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Whitewater |
| 2012-13 | MIT, Virginia Wesleyan, North Central (Ill.), St. Thomas, Rochester, St. Thomas, Amherst |
| 2011-12 | Virginia Wesleyan, Augustana, Middlebury, Hope, UW-Whitewater |
| 2010-11 | UW-Stevens Point, Wooster, Whitworth, Williams, Whitworth, St. Thomas |
| 2009-10 | Washington U., Randolph-Macon, UW-Stevens Point, Guilford, Washington U., UW-Stevens Point |
| 2008-09 | Washington U., UW-Platteville, Wheaton (Ill.), St. Thomas, Washington U. |
| 2007-08 | Washington U., Amherst, Rochester, Washington U., Amherst, Hope, Washington U. |
| 2006-07 | Virginia Wesleyan, Wooster, UW-Stevens Point, Amherst, UW-Stevens Point, Amherst |
| 2005-06 | Illinois Wesleyan, Wittenberg, Wooster, Lawrence, Virginia Wesleyan |
| 2004-05 | UW-Stevens Point, Wooster, UW-Stevens Point, Illinois Wesleyan, UW-Stevens Point, Wooster, UW-Stevens Point |
| 2003-04 | Williams, Hampden-Sydney, Amherst, Rochester, Williams, UW-Stevens Point |
| 2002-03 | Washington U., Randolph-Macon, Williams |
| 2001-02 | Carthage, Randolph-Macon, Carthage, Otterbein |
| 2000-01 | Calvin, Carthage, Wooster, Carthage, Chicago, Catholic |
| 1999-00 | UW-Platteville, Hampden-Sydney, Calvin |
| ** Randolph-Macon finished the 2020-21 season that was cut short by COVID-19 ranked No. 1. | |
| # Swarthmore finished the 2019-20 season that was cut short by COVID-19 ranked No. 1. |
Rankings on repeat
Through the end of the 2023-24 season, 28 programs have appeared in our rankings at least 100 times. Wooster has appeared in our rankings the most times (249).
| 1 | Wooster | 249 |
| 2 | UW-Stevens Point | 240 |
| 3 | Amherst | 237 |
| 4 | Washington U. | 234 |
| T-5 | St. Thomas (Minn.) | 206 |
| T-5 | Williams | 206 |
| 7 | UW-Whitewater | 203 |
| T-8 | Illinois Wesleyan | 189 |
| T-8 | Randolph-Macon | 189 |
| T-8 | Whitworth | 189 |
Franklin and Marshall has the distinction of the most poll appearances without reaching No. 1. The Diplomats have been ranked 150 times, but their highest appearance to date is No. 3.
All eight teams in the WIAC have been ranked at least once. UW-Superior also appeared in the Top 25, way back in 2001-02, before the Yellowjackets moved from the WIAC to the UMAC. All eight teams in the UAA have also been ranked at least once, as have all 11 teams in the NESCAC.
Nebraska Wesleyan became the first unranked team to win the national championship. The top ranked team in the country has won the national championship three times. Calvin did it in 1999-2000, UW-Stevens Point in 2004-05 and Randolph-Macon in 2021-22.
When Trine won the 2023-24 national championship, the Thunder joined three other teams that achieved that feat despite not appearing in our preseason Top 25. The others to do so were Nebraska Wesleyan (2017-18), UW-Whitewater (2011-12), and Otterbein (2001-02).
Coast Guard has appeared in the Top 25 only once, but the Bears made that appearance count. They rode their Cinderella postseason run to No. 15 at the end of the 2007-08 season.