📄 2043 EC Hood’s Pre-Season Top 25

Another season is upon us and just like that it’s time for the Second Annual EC Hood CBGM Preseason Top 25. This isn’t just a regular ol’ prediction of what I think will happen this year. Nor is it a list spat out by AI. Nope. It’s something in-between: a a ranking based on the strength, measured in star ratings, of the top eight players on each team.

So, what we are really doing is giving you yet a poll other than the one the game’s AI comes up with, and eliminating prestige and brand-name cachet from the equation. It’s straight star points. How good and/or deep is your roster?

Now, this is definitely a flawed experiment, because of many factors. We know star ratings are foggy at best in this game and no guarantee of a player’s quality. We also know that sometimes in CBGM just having a couple of 5-star guys and average Joes at other positions can make you a title contender. So this ranking might hurt the top-heavy teams a bit and boost the “deep” teams more. For instance, Kansas came in 23^rd here. But the Jayhawks have a starting backcourt of 5-star players in Sugar Ray McLaughlin and Elton Kaminski that could terrorize the association this season. It might be way too low. But perhaps the team’s perceived lack of depth will be their undoing?

On the other hand, it is going to be hard to argue that our top 5 – Butler, North Carolina, Minnesota, Notre Dame and Baylor – won’t be the tone setters this season in CBGM when you look at the rosters they will be trotting out.

Just a note: these rankings were based on player ratings before practices and the latest rerate in the game.

Without further ado…

The EC Hood 2042-43 Preseason Top 25

1. Butler
2. North Carolina
3. Minnesota
4. Notre Dame
5. Baylor
6. LSU
7. Florida State
8. VCU
9. Purdue
10. Louisville
11. Maryland
12. Seton Hall
13. Iowa
14. Stanford
15. BYU
16. Murray State
17. Tennessee
18. Alabama
19. Saint Mary’s
20. Illinois
21. La Salle
22. Syracuse
23. Kansas
24. Kentucky
25. Middle Tennessee

Receiving Votes (just missed the Top 25): Alabama A&M, Wichita State, San Diego State, Michigan, Texas, Oklahoma, Villanova, Houston, Akron, Washington State, Indiana