October 22, 2025 • by NCAA / Mark Broadie
Following the 2024-25 season, the NCAA Divisions I, II and III Golf Committees conducted annual meetings, in part, to discuss potential ranking changes for the upcoming season. As a result of those meetings there is a minor adjustment to the ranking methodology for some genders and divisions.
The adjustment is an addition of a ‘guardrail for runaway winners’ (team or individual). This guardrail caps the number of points of a winner in extreme cases of a large stroke differential between first and second place and a large differential between a team’s (or individual’s) event performance and their season-long performance.
Following committee discussions, NCAA Division I Women and NCAA Division III Men and Women adopted this guardrail for the 2025-26 season. There was no change for NCAA Division I Men, NCAA Division II Men or Women, and no change to NAIA or NJCAA.
Additionally, in order to ensure more uniformity of points awards across leagues and divisions, the points have been rescaled for women's teams in NJCAA D2, and for NJCAA DI and DII Women individuals, and NJCAA DII Men individuals. This rescaling has no impact on the ranking order of teams or individuals.