The NCAA College Golf ranking saga unfolded in three acts. First, there was high anticipation that NCAA Golf would finally have rankings in collaboration with Spikemark. But just five weeks into the season, Spikemark came a cropper. The board severed its ties and shook hands with Clippd. The latter one, founded by passionate golfers, raised the hopes of collegiate golfers and coaches.

Finally, in the third and perhaps the final act, the agency has failed to cut the mustard, dashing the hopes of NCAA golfers once again. In a sharp departure from the previous year’s rankings, Mark Broadie, the man-in-charge of the rankings, introduced a new format. Earlier, Golfstat used head-to-head and stroke differentials to determine the top ranking. Clippd, however, switched to a points-based approach that, coaches feel, lacks parity.

How do the new NCAA Golf rankings work?

The new method assigns each team and player an average point value. Based on that, the field’s strength and the total points for an event are determined. Once the event is over, finishes and stroke differentials are counted to allot final points to each team and player. The changes took effect in August.

The rankings reveal a few things that were expected since the beginning, such as Wake Forest topping the D-I division on the women’s side. Wake Forest won seven times in 2022–23, with a top-three finish in all the tournaments. As for individual performances, Arkansas Razorbacks freshman Maria Jose Marin tops the chart.

On the men’s side, North Carolina tops the leaderboard, cruising past Auburn. Andrew DiBitteto’s team won three times this season. On the individual front, Nick Dunlap, a sophomore at Alabama, clinched the top spot in the NCAA Golf Ranking.

Mark Broadie, a professor at Columbia Business School, is looking over the rankings. His method resembles that of OWGR, which itself drew a lot of flak recently because of its allegedly differential treatment of the DP World Tour Championship and the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic. Perhaps it’s not so surprising that Broadies’ rankings have also caused a firestorm.

Coaches are anything but happy about the system

Some coaches feel that the new NCAA Golf Ranking fails to evaluate the value of each field correctly, as GolfWeek revealed. Many pointed out that the smaller fields were awarded more points than many events with a stronger field. It’s a similar criticism that OWGR has faced many times over the years.

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This strength of field has also muddied the value added to stroke differentials. Some coaches point out that at times stroke differentials are given undue weight, resulting in players getting more points for winning on a weaker field. Contrarily, players who win in a stronger field by fewer strokes are suffering because of the overimportance of stroke differentials. Additionally, coaches have lashed out at the system for its unfair way of splitting points for tied positions.

Broadie is scheduled to hold two seminars for coaches later this month. He is also expected to take part in the National Convention of the Golf Coaches Association of America in Las Vegas next month.

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