In the college basketball world, there is a widely-used resource that uses statistics and metrics to measure Penn State and every other Division I team in the nation.
Statistician Ken Pomeroy, the creator of the KenPom rankings, began his statistical archive on all 365 college basketball teams beginning with the 2022 season.
He has since seen his analysis methods being used by college scouts, media members and now even the NCAA tournament selection committee uses the KenPom rankings as a reference tool for March Madness.
KenPom also ranks and re-ranks each team regularly throughout the season.
He has just released his 10-Year College Basketball Program Rankings (2017-2026) and has Penn State coming in at No. 46 with a net ranking of +61.3.
PSU’s overall record this past decade is 168-156.
Their KenPom ranking after the 2025-2026 season was No. 139 with a net rating of +2.31.
KenPom doesn’t rely on wins and losses, even though its final, yearly net rankings seem to accurately reflect most teams’ end of year records. The reason Pomeroy doesn’t rely on wins and losses is because of the enormous disparities in the strengths of college teams and also who they play. That is why you now see a lot of college teams scheduling top-tier competition for the regular season in hopes of showing the NCAA committee their strength of schedule at season’s end.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.KenPom relies on a few major factors:
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency (AdjO) – How many points a team would score per 100 possessions against an average team. The higher the number, the better.
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency (AdjD) – How many points a team would allow per 100 possessions against an average team. The lower the number, the better.
Net Rating – Adjusted Efficiency Margin (AdjEM) – This takes the offensive efficiency, then subtracts the defensive efficiency. The resulting figure is the number of points a team would outscore the ‘average’ team by. For the net rating, KenPom also takes into consideration the scoring margin, level of competition, the pace of the game and the site of the game.
So for example if Duke scores 90 points per game per 100 possessions and gives up 67 points per game per 100 defensive possessions, its net ranking would be +23 and make them a favorite in just about every game they play.
As for Penn State if these KenPom rankings hold true, theoretically, this rating of No. 45 should be an indicator to capture the overall perception of the program for these past 10 years. It should also reflect and be a predictor of the kind of success to expect from Penn State over some sort of extended period of time to come.
