KenPom Ranks BYU Basketball 38 in Preseason Rankings, Projects Each Game

KenPom — widely regarded as the go-to college basketball analytics — released its first rankings of the 2021-2022 season and has BYU ranked 38. This is the highest BYU has started in Mark Pope’s three years at BYU — BYU started 71 in 2019 before finishing 13 and started 88 last season before finishing 20.

KenPom projects BYU with a 20-9 record and 10-6 in conference, with a 0.01% chance to go undefeated. This doesn’t include the two additional games BYU will play in the Diamond Head Classic, where BYU is the highest rated team.

The WCC is rated as the seventh toughest conference, which is the best it has ever been. BYU is ranked the third highest team, behind Gonzaga at 1 and USF at 34. St Mary’s is 42 and LMU is next at 69. Santa Clara, Pacific and Pepperdine are all within the 150, meaning BYU will have chances at quality wins in conference and not many resume-crushing losses.

BYU’s non-conference slate is arguably the best in years, with 6 games rated as tier A/B. Oregon is rated 29 and is rated as a Tier A game, and a true road game at #66 Missouri State is other tier A game. Games versus SDSU (33), Creighton (53), Utah (93), and Weber State (114) round out non-conference play. BYU plays South Florida in the first game of the Diamond Head Classic and could play Vanderbilt in the second round, who is ranked 79.

Below is what KenPom projects for each BYU game and the opponents’ rankings. BYU tips off the regular season November 9 versus Cleveland State.