The world governing body for basketball earlier today launched a new ranking system for men national teams. The new ranking is game-based and will consider results of all regional pre-qualifiers, Continental Cups, Olympic Basketball Tournaments (including qualifiers) and the FIBA Basketball World Cup. The ranking will be updated after every window of qualifiers and after the top official FIBA competitions.
Prior to now, the previous ranking was purely based on competitions and only took into account the final standings of tournaments.
The new system as explained by FIBA is simple; 1,000 basis points will be awarded for every game, with the two teams earning a share of these according to the margin of victory or defeat. Weightings are added on a round basis meaning that, when a team progresses through a top official FIBA competition, its wins are worth more with every round it plays. Most recent performance will also weigh more than old ones.
In addition, the new ranking system recognizes the value of away wins and wins against opponents that are higher in ranking.
"The new ranking was devised with our new calendar clearly in mind. We are pleased to offer more teams - 153 of them, compared to 91 previously - a ranking that can be updated after every window of the Qualifiers so that national teams, fans and their national federations can follow their progress on a more regular basis. Prior to the change, the rankings already proved to be among the most popular pages on FIBA.basketball and we expect there will be even more debating and conversations taking place following the implementation of this new one." - FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann
Nigeria`s men team retained its No 1 spot in Africa but slipped ten spots to No 26 in the world.
The FIBA World Ranking - Men, Women, Boys and Girls - is presented by NIKE.
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