The college basketball rankings every Feb. 1 are a weirdly accurate predictor of NCAA champions
The eventual NCAA national champion was ranked in the top 12 of the AP Poll 87 percent of the time on Feb. 1 in the 71 years since the poll debuted. source https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2020-01-30/college-basketball-rankings-every-feb-1-are-weirdly-accurate