What ESPN’s College Basketball Power Index says about Clemson ahead of March Madness
The Clemson Tigers have been one of the most consistent college basketball teams in the nation since the start of 2025.
Brad Brownell’s team, now ranked No. 11 in this week’s Top 25 polls, opened 2025 with an impressive 85-71 victory over the Stanford Cardinal on New Year’s Day. When Clemson lost by 10 points six days later at Louisville, few could have predicted the run the Tigers would go on in the two months that have followed.
With their 78-69 win at Boston College on Wednesday, the Tigers improved to 25-5 overall and 17-2 in ACC play. Of those school-record 17 conference wins, 14 have been by double digits. That includes a 20-point blowout win over North Carolina, a 26-point road win at Florida State, a 10-point victory at SMU and a 13-point win at Virginia — a team Clemson had dropped 15 of its past 16 meetings against.
Not surprisingly, various metrics systems have had the Tigers on the rise since then. One of those is ESPN’s popular College Basketball Power Index (BPI).
Here’s a closer look at what ESPN’s metrics are saying about Clemson basketball.
ESPN Analytics ranks Clemson as a top 15 college basketball team
After beating Boston College for their seventh straight win, Clemson is tied with the Kentucky Wildcats at 14th overall in ESPN’s BPI. That’s actually down one spot from No. 13 after the Tigers’ 71-58 win over Virginia last Saturday. The Maryland Terrapins passed Clemson in ESPN’s metrics after winning a big midweek game, 71-65 at No. 17 Michigan.
The Tigers have an overall BPI rating of 16.5. Their offense is ranked 16th overall with a 9.0 rating, one spot below the BYU Cougars (9.3) and one spot ahead of North Carolina (8.8). Defensively, Clemson is 21st overall with a 7.6 rating.
Offensive ratings are described by ESPN as a measure of “a team’s offensive strength compared to an average offense on a scale of points per 70 possessions,” and vice versa for defensive strength.
Clemson has consistently risen in ESPN’s metrics
The Tigers have been gradually climbing up these and other ratings since the start of their seven-game winning streak, which began with a thrilling 77-71 upset of the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils on Feb. 8 at Littlejohn Coliseum. After the win over Duke, Clemson climbed to No. 24 in BPI. They rose to No. 20 before their 79-69 win at SMU on Feb. 22, a Quad 1 victory in the NET rankings, and to No. 13 after the win over Virginia.
ESPN updates Clemson’s chances of winning the ACC
With only one game left in the regular season, there’s still an outside chance for Clemson to claim the ACC regular season title. The Tigers will just need some help.
Heading into the weekend, ESPN gives Clemson a 19.9 percent chance of either winning the ACC or having a chance to “at least share the best (win/loss) record” in the conference. This doesn’t take conference tiebreakers into account, which is where things get murky for the Tigers.
Three things need to happen for Clemson to win the ACC this weekend. The obvious one is the Tigers need to beat Virginia Tech (13-17 overall, 8-11 ACC) Saturday and for Duke (27-3, 18-1) to lose to North Carolina (20-11, 13-6) in Chapel Hill.
Louisville (24-6, 17-2), which beat the Tigers 74-64 earlier this year, holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Clemson. The Cardinals would need to drop their regular season finale at home against Stanford (19-11, 11-8) for Clemson to have a chance to win the ACC.
What do the odds say? According to ESPN Analytics, Clemson has a 95.1 percent chance to beat Virginia Tech, Duke a 79.2 percent chance of beating UNC, and Louisville an 86.3 percent chance of beating Stanford.
ESPN College Basketball Power Index, explained
ESPN describes its BPI ratings this way: “The Basketball Power Index (BPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward. BPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Strength of Record (SOR) is a measure of team achievement based on how difficult a team’s WL record is to achieve. Game predictions account for opponent strength, pace of play, site, travel distance, day’s rest and altitude, and are used to simulate the season 10,000 times to produce season projections. Numbers update daily.”
