The Shippensburg University men's basketball team is ranked fourth in the second edition of the 2020 NCAA Atlantic Regional Rankings released Wednesday afternoon.
 
The NCAA regional rankings are used annually to determine the teams that qualify for the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championships. Rankings will be released each Wednesday afternoon leading up to the announcement of the tournament field, which is set for the evening of Sunday, March 8.
 
Shippensburg is in the Atlantic Region, which is comprised of all schools in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC), Mountain East Conference (MEC) and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) along with independents Bluefield State and Salem.
 
The winners of each conference tournament receive automatic qualification into the NCAA Atlantic Region Championships. Five at-large selections will round out the eight-team regional tournament field.
 
PSAC teams comprise three of the 10 teams currently in the rankings, with IUP at No. 1 and Mercyhurst at No. 7. The MEC features four teams (No. 2 West Liberty, No. 3 Fairmont State, No. 5 Charleston and No. 10 West Virginia State) while the CIAA has three teams (No. 6 Virginia State, No. 8 Johnson C. Smith and No. 9 Fayetteville State).
 
The regional rankings committees are tasked with assigning teams based on the following criteria, which shall be applied in no particular order per the NCAA Handbook: in-region winning percentage; Division II winning percentage; Division II strength of schedule (opponents' average winning percentage and opponents' opponents' average winning percentage); Division II head-to-head competition and results versus Division II common opponents.
 
Additional criteria the committee should consider includes rating percentage index (RPI), performance indicator, and record vs. ranked teams. The performance indicator breakdown is on Page 30 of the NCAA's pre-tournament manual, available here: https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/championships/sports/basketball/d2/men/2019-20D2MBB_PreChampsManual.pdf