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Yesterday, ESPN released its college basketball future power rankings (subscription required), and the San Diego State Aztecs were ranked No. 19. The power rankings specifically lists the 25 teams that will most likely excel in the next three college basketball seasons.
ESPN's college basketball insiders rated schools in five different categories on a 1-10 scale. Those five categories were "Coaching," "Current Talent," "Recruiting," "Program Power" and "Stability." The scores given for coaching, current talent and recruiting all accounted for 25 percent of the school's overall score; program power accounted for 15 percent and stability accounted for 10 percent. The final result for each school was a score out of 100, and the top 25 scores in all of college basketball made the power rankings.
SDSU received a score of 79.3. Here's the score broken down by category:
Coaching: 83
Current talent: 73
Recruiting: 85
Program power: 71
Stability: 83
The Aztecs are the second-highest ranked team from a non-major conference behind Gonzaga who came in at No. 12. UNLV, the only other team from the Mountain West Conference in the power rankings, was just three spots behind SDSU at No. 22. The future bodes well for the MWC, which has done an excellent job in the recent past at establishing itself among the more respected conferences, and will be led by the Aztecs and Rebels in the upcoming years.
Here are the complete rankings.
| Rank | School | Score |
| 1. | Duke | 98.1 |
| 2. | Kansas | 97.5 |
| 3. | Kentucky | 97.3 |
| 4. | Louisville | 93.8 |
| 5. | Florida | 93.0 |
| 6. | Arizona | 92.4 |
| 7. | North Carolina | 91.6 |
| 8. | Syracuse | 91.5 |
| 9. | Michigan State | 91.3 |
| 10. | Michigan | 87.0 |
| 11. | Ohio State | 85.4 |
| 12. | Gonzaga | 85.4 |
| 13. | Wisconsin | 84.3 |
| 14. | UConn | 83.5 |
| 15. | Virginia | 82.7 |
| 16. | UCLA | 81.4 |
| 17. | Xavier | 80.8 |
| 18. | Villanova | 80.0 |
| 19. | SDSU | 79.3 |
| 20. | Harvard | 78.1 |
| 21. | Pittsburgh | 78.0 |
| 22. | UNLV | 77.7 |
| 23. | Memphis | 76.6 |
| 24. | Georgetown | 76.0 |
| 25. | VCU | 75.4 |
This is a nice recognition for SDSU to have after its season last year. Coach Fisher has done a great job building this program up and achieved the best haul in school history for this upcoming season. SDSU's No. 17 incoming class (according to ESPN.com) will be joined by top-100 2015 shooting guard Jeremy Hemsley next year with more players likely to sign before the year is done. Not only has the recruiting been great, but the team also has excelled at bringing in transfers with the latest being Angelo Chol from Arizona. With solid recruiting at the high school and transfer levels, SDSU hasn't had huge difficulties filling the roles of stars who have left for the NBA, like Kawhi Leonard, Jamaal Franklin and Xavier Thames (who now plays for Baloncesto Sevilla).
The rankings are exciting for SDSU hoops, but are just rankings--words on the internet. The Aztecs have established themselves as a west coast power and a regular in the NCAA Tournament, but now they need to make the next step and make the jump past the Sweet 16. Coach Fisher is making all the right moves and has the program in the best position in its history. This is a great time to be a student and fan of San Diego State, and the future will only get better.