By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION
INDIANAPOLIS – Fort Hays State Men’s Basketball vaulted into the Top 10 of the NCAA Central Region Rankings, released on Wednesday (Feb. 22). The Tigers were not among the 10 teams considered for ranking in the first release a week ago, but mathematical formulas have shifted in favor of the Tigers since the previous release. The Tigers are now ranked No. 8 in the region.
According to the report for the Central Region located at the bottom of the region rankings page on NCAA.com, Fort Hays State has the eighth-best Region RPI and eighth-best Division II Performance Indicator value in the Central Region. That puts the Tigers on the good side of the cutline right now, but there is still another couple of weeks to play and formulas will shift again for next week’s rankings released on the day the MIAA Tournament begins (Mar. 1).
The Central Region consists of teams from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, and Great American Conference. Champions from each of the three conference tournaments within the region will receive automatic bids to the Central Regional of the NCAA Tournament. Five other teams from the region that do not win the conference tournaments will be at-large selections to make a field of eight teams for the regional.
Fort Hays State is one of four teams from the MIAA in the top eight of the region rankings, which also includes Northwest Missouri State (No. 1), Central Oklahoma (T-No. 3), and Emporia State (No. 6). The NSIC has four teams among the top 10, including Northern State (No. 2), MSU Moorhead (No. 5), Minnesota Duluth (No. 7), and Sioux Falls (No. 9). Representing the GAC in the region rankings are Southern Nazarene (T-No. 3) and Southeastern Oklahoma State (No. 10).
The NCAA Central Region rankings for February 22, 2023 are listed below.
| Rank | School | Overall DII Record | In-Region Record |
| 1 | Northwest Missouri State | 23-2 | 21-2 |
| 2 | Northern State | 22-5 | 22-4 |
| 3 | Central Oklahoma | 19-3 | 18-3 |
| 3 | Southern Nazarene | 23-3 | 23-3 |
| 5 | MSU Moorhead | 22-6 | 20-6 |
| 6 | Emporia State | 19-6 | 19-6 |
| 7 | Minnesota Duluth | 20-8 | 19-8 |
| 8 | Fort Hays State | 16-8 | 16-8 |
| 9 | Sioux Falls | 17-10 | 17-10 |
| 10 | Southeastern Oklahoma | 15-9 | 15-9 |