Colorado State and 3 snubs from latest AP top 25 men's basketball poll

Monday marks Week 11 of the college basketball season, and it brings the newest edition of the AP Top 25 men's basketball poll. Two weeks of conference play are complete, and we are finally getting a sense of which teams are legitimate contenders and which squads coasted through their easy non-conference slate.

UConn is the new #1 team in the nation after Purdue's loss at Nebraska while Iowa State's big win over #2 Houston helped the Cyclones jump into the AP Top 25 for the first time this season. In total, 12 ranked teams lost during a chaotic week — with Gonzaga dropping outside of the Top 25 for the first time in 143 weeks.

While the AP Poll is by no means the be-all and end-all for determining how good a college basketball team is, it is an important capsule for determining who is playing the best basketball at any given week. Here are the biggest snubs from the latest AP Top 25 men's college basketball poll.

Colorado State

A loss at Utah State (now ranked #16) dropped Colorado State from 13th to 17th in last week's poll, so why should a similar tough loss on the road to Boise State be enough to knock the Rams out of the rankings? Boise State is 44th in the NET Rankings — well within the Quad I threshold — and has won nine of their last 10 contests. The Broncos then followed up with a win at Nevada, which was 15-1 up to that point.

The Mountain West is deep this year and has more teams in the top 50 of the NET Rankings (six) than every conference except the Big 12 and Big East. Losses are going to happen, but the AP Voters are not respecting the quality of the MWC. Illinois lost at home to Maryland, a team that was outside the NET top 100, and only dropped four spots in the poll. Colorado State loses at Boise State and goes from 17th to unranked. It makes no sense.

San Diego State

In continuing with our theme of Mountain West disrespect, we highlight a San Diego State team that had no games off in non-conference play. The Aztecs played a formidable slate of road contests against BYU, Grand Canyon, and Gonzaga, neutral site tussles against Saint Mary's and Washington, plus underrated home games against UC Irvine and Stanford. SDSU emerged from that gauntlet with a 14-2 record, a pair of Quad I wins, and three Quad II victories.

San Diego State's three losses this year have come on the road at some of the toughest venues in the country: BYU, Grand Canyon, and New Mexico. The Aztecs should not be punished for their tough scheduling, yet the reigning national runners-up find themselves outside of the AP Top 25 after that defeat to New Mexico.

Alabama

Marquette is the only five-loss team currently ranked, but Alabama has made a strong case in recent weeks for AP Poll recognition. The Rolling Tide beat an upstart South Carolina team by 27 points at home, then went on the road to take down Mississippi State for their second Quad I win of the year.

Alabama also has the best metrics of any unranked team, coming in at sixth in KenPom and fourth in the NET Rankings. Every one of Alabama's defeats came in Quad I games against teams that are in the top 50 in the NET — including losses to Arizona and Purdue, which are second and third in the NET.

The Rolling Tide have played the 10th-toughest schedule in the country and have metrics that are better than Marquette in every regard. If Marquette is ranked, then Alabama should be too.