Premo-Porretta Power Poll

The Premo-Porretta Power Poll is a retroactive end-of-year ranking for American college basketball teams competing in the 1895–96 through the 1947–48 seasons.[1] These rankings are not officially recognized by the NCAA.

The poll was intended to serve collectively as a source of information regarding the relative standings of college basketball teams within given seasons during the early decades of the sport. No systematic end-of-season national tournament existed in college basketball until the founding of the National Invitation Tournament in 1938 and the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Tournament in 1939, the latter of which determines the NCAA champion for a given season. Furthermore, no regular, recognized national polling took place for college basketball prior to the establishment of the Associated Press poll and the coaches poll in the 1948–49 and 1950–51 seasons, respectively.[1]

Background

Patrick Premo, a professor emeritus of accounting at St. Bonaventure University, and Phil Porretta, a former computer programmer, have each spent more than 40 years—first separately, and later collaboratively—researching the early history of college basketball.[1][2] Their archival work has often uncovered game results that had not previously been reported in books and basketball program media guides, such as the results of competition against AAU, semi-professional, club, and YMCA teams.[1] Whereas Bill Schroeder of the Helms Athletic Foundation retroactively named only his choice of the top team nationally for each season from 1900–01 through 1941–42 (and then annually selected a national champion for each season from 1942–43 through 1981–82),[3] Premo and Porretta have used the data they have compiled to compare teams against one another and assign rankings to multiple teams for each season—15 teams for the 1895–96 season, 20 teams for each season from 1896–97 through 1908–09, and 25 teams for each season from 1909–10 through 1947–48.[1]

Premo's findings, which he clarified were "simply his opinion", were first published in 1995 as the Premo Power Poll.[4] Most recently, in 2009, Premo and Porretta's full collaborative rankings were included with the core information for each season prior to 1949 in the ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia.[1]

Retroactive top-ranked teams

See also: National championships in men's college basketball

The teams listed below are the highest-ranked teams in the Premo-Porretta Power Poll for that season. They did not win a contemporary national tournament or title.

Power Poll No. 1 teams (1892–1948)
Year Premo (1995)[4] Premo-Porretta (2009)[1]
1892–93 Iowa —
1893–94 Hiram —
1894–95 Temple —
1895–96 Temple Yale
1896–97 Yale
1897–98 Mount Union
1898–99 Yale
1899–1900 Yale
1900–01 Bucknell
1901–02 Minnesota
1902–03 Minnesota
1903–04 Columbia
1904–05 Columbia
1905–06 Wabash
1906–07 Chicago Williams
1907–08 Wabash
1908–09 Chicago
1909–10 Williams
1910–11 St. John's
1911–12 Wisconsin
1912–13 Navy
1913–14 Wisconsin
1914–15 Illinois
1915–16 Wisconsin
1916–17 Washington State
1917–18 Syracuse
1918–19 Navy
1919–20 Penn
1920–21 Missouri
1921–22 Missouri
1922–23 Army
1923–24 North Carolina
1924–25 Princeton
1925–26 Syracuse
1926–27 Notre Dame California
1927–28 Pittsburgh
1928–29 Montana State
1929–30 Alabama
1930–31 Northwestern
1931–32 Purdue
1932–33 Texas
1933–34 South Carolina Kentucky
1934–35 Richmond NYU
1935–36 Long Island
1936–37 Stanford
1937–38 Temple NIT
1938–39 Long Island NIT
1939–40 Indiana NCAA
1940–41 Long Island NIT
1941–42 Stanford NCAA
1942–43 Illinois
1943–44 Army
1944–45 Iowa
1945–46 Oklahoma A&M NCAA
1946–47 Kentucky
1947–48 Kentucky NCAA
  • NIT champion: NIT
  • NCAA tournament champion: NCAA

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Editors of ESPN (2009). ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia. New York: ESPN Books; Ballantine Books. pp. 526–587. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2. The Early Years: The Premo-Porretta Polls (1895–96 through 1947–48 seasons) provide a rare snapshot of the sport's hierarchy in the years before national polling. Pat Premo, a professor emeritus at St. Bonaventure University, and Phil Porretta, a former computer programmer, have 40 years' experience each researching college basketball games. Their archival work, first published in 1995, has helped them retroactively determine rankings, because they often uncover game results that were not reported in record books or media guides, including competition against YMCA, club and AAU teams.
  2. ^ Smarr, Emilee (March 13, 2025). "Did you know Alabama basketball won a national championship? That's OK: UA didn't either". The Tuscaloosa News. Decades ago, a couple of sports junkies − a professor and a computer programmer − got together to dedicate their spare time to determining who would have cut down championship nets before the NCAA Tournament began. [...] Premo died in 2021 and Porretta two years later.
  3. ^ Jenkins, Dan (September 11, 1967). "This Year The Fight Will Be In The Open". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved May 3, 2015.
  4. ^ a b Douchant, Mike (1995). Encyclopedia of College Basketball. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. p. 17–22. ISBN 0-8103-9483-9. PREMO POWER POLL: The first wire-service national poll wasn't conducted until the 1948–49 season by the Associated Press. In an attempt to recognize some of the premier teams in the history of men's college basketball before that time, Patrick M. Premo, a professor of accounting at St. Bonaventure, analyzed every season since 1892–93.
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