By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Monday brought the first NET rankings of the 2025-26 season and good news for the men’s and women’s basketball teams at Iowa and Iowa State.

Both schools were in the top 20 in both sports in the formula used by the NCAA Tournament selection committees when selecting and seeding the 68-team fields in March.

It is, of course, still early in the season, and wins that looked good in December may not look so good in February.

But the first rankings are a good jumping-off point:

A breakdown of the early resumés of the Hawkeyes and Cyclones, and some other thoughts:

MEN

IOWA

Record: 7-0

NET: 16

Average opponent NET ranking: 261

NET strength of schedule: 338

Quad 1: 0-0

Quad 2: 1-0

Quad 3: 2-0

Quad 4: 4-0

Thoughts: The Hawkeyes don’t have that signature win yet — the 81-62 win over Xavier might look better in a couple of months — but that win, combined with the 74-69 win over Ole Miss in the Acrisure Classic last week, lays a decent foundation for the rest of the season. There is a chance for big wins coming up — Iowa is at Michigan State (10 NET) on Tuesday night and at Iowa State (7 NET) next week.

IOWA STATE

Record: 7-0

NET: 7

Average opponent NET ranking: 214

NET strength of schedule: 220

Quad 1: 1-0

Quad 2: 1-0

Quad 3: 3-0

Quad 4: 2-0

Thoughts: The Cyclones already have two Quad 1 and 2 wins — beating St. John’s and Creighton on a neutral court should look good on a resumé. Next week’s game against Iowa will be their last real chance to add a bullet point to their resumé before heading into Big 12 play.

WOMEN

IOWA

Record: 8-0

NET: 11

Average opponent NET ranking: 113

NET strength of schedule: 141

Quad 1: 1-0

Quad 2: 2-0

Quad 3: 0-0

Quad 4: 5-0

Thoughts: Hawkeyes already have neutral court wins over Baylor (28 NET) and Miami (Fla.) (50 NET) on their resumé, and still have Iowa State on the road (19 NET) and UConn on a neutral court (2 NET) coming up. Oh, and that win over Fairfield on Sunday isn’t looking too bad — the Stags are 43rd in the NET.

IOWA STATE

Record: 9-0

NET: 19

Average opponent NET ranking: 264

NET strength of schedule: 292

Quad 1: 0-0

Quad 2: 1-0

Quad 3: 1-0

Quad 4: 7-0

Thoughts: Cyclones are undefeated, but this isn’t a resumé that will wow the committee just yet. Seven of the nine wins are Quad 4s, and the strength of schedule isn’t good. The 105-95 win over Indiana on Sunday on a neutral court will look good, and they get Iowa at home next week.

THE WAB

A metric used by the selection committees is WAB (Wins Above Bubble). The WAB is a resume-based metric that shows how many more, or fewer, wins a team has against its schedule versus what a bubble team would expect to have against the same schedule. The WAB uses the NET as the basis for opponent strength, with the “bubble team” being defined as a team ranked 45th in NET, based on a study of recent seasons.

A look at the WABs of the Hawkeyes and Cyclones:

Iowa men: Ranked 32nd in the WAB at +0.28

Iowa State men: Ranked 11th at +1.01

Iowa women: Ranked 6th at +1.59

Iowa State women: Ranked 23rd at +0.57

OTHER THOUGHTS

Western Illinois’ women’s basketball team started out at 108 in the NET. Leathernecks are 4-1 overall, but only the four Division I games they’ve played count toward the NET. Western Illinois is 50th in WAB at -0.01. … Northern Iowa’s men are 73rd in the NET, while Drake comes in at 153. The highest Missouri Valley Conference team in the rankings is Belmont at 35.

Photo: Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz holds up his MVP award after the Hawkeyes’ win over Grand Canyon in the Acrisure Series in Palm Springs, California last week. (Greg Fiore/Icon Sportswire)