Calculation
Only FIBA tournaments consisting of full five-a-side teams are used in calculations for the rankings. Other tournaments, such as regional championships, invitationals, three-on-three half-court basketball, and friendlies are not included.
On October 11, 2017, FIBA radically changed its ranking system for men's national teams when Nike became FIBA's strategic partner. The changes saw the ranking system switching from the previous competition-based system to a game-based system. [5] [6] Every game played by a national team within the last eight years in the World Cup, Olympics, continental championships, and qualifiers for these events is included in the calculations. [7]
FIBA uses a weighted arithmetic mean to determine the average rating points a team has earned in games in the last eight years. [8] The weighted average rating points are then compared to determine the rankings.
Rating points per game
A team's final rating points for a particular game is the sum of basis, home/away, and opposition ranking points as follows. [7]
Basis points
Each game in a ranking tournament is initially valued at 1,000 "basis points," divided between the two teams as follows: [7]
| Victory margin | Points to winner | Points to loser |
|---|
| Less than 10 points | 700 | 300 |
| 10–19 points | 750 | 250 |
| 20 or more points | 800 | 200 |
| Forfeit | 800 | 0 |
Home or away points
The basis points are adjusted based on the site of the game, with FIBA calling this adjustment "home or away" points. During the finals of ranking tournaments, only games played by a host team in its own country count as "home" games; all others are treated as neutral-site games. Adjustments are: [7]
| Site of game | Adjustment |
|---|
| Home game | −70 points |
| Neutral venue | No adjustment |
| Away game | +70 points |
Opposition ranking points
The basis points are also adjusted to reflect the strength of the opponent. FIBA determines what it calls "opposition ranking points" by the following formula: [7]
- Opposition ranking points = 1.5 × (average pre-game ranking for all national teams − opponent's pre-game ranking)
Weighting
The new calculations continue to account for the specific tournament and region, as in the former procedure, but no longer explicitly consider a team's final tournament placement. [7]
The rating points of each game (above) are weighted by the game's weight (W), which is the product of the time decay, competition/region, competition stage, and round weights, as follows. [7]
Time decay
In a new feature, a "time decay" factor has been introduced into the calculations. More-recent games carry the greatest weight, steadily declining until falling out of the calculations after 8 years: [7]
| Time of game | Weighting |
|---|
| Current year (Y) and immediately previous year (Y−1) | 1.0 |
| Y−2 and Y−3 | 0.75 |
| Y−4 and Y−5 | 0.5 |
| Y−6 and Y−7 | 0.25 |
Competition and region weights
Each game has a specific "competition and region weight," with continental competition and FIBA World Cup qualification games assigned the weight of the respective region. FIBA World Ranking weights for men's events: [7]
From 2017 forward, FIBA Asia and FIBA Oceania members compete for a single regional championship under the FIBA Asia banner. [9] Results from before 2017, during which FIBA Asia and FIBA Oceania held separate championships, will continue to figure into the rankings (until 2025 via "time decay"). [7]
Competition stage weight
In a new feature, FIBA also weights game results by the "competition stage weight." [7]
Round weight
Additionally, FIBA has added a "round weight" (R) to the system, giving each victory in a final tournament (World Cup, Olympics, or continental championship) a weighting based on the round in which it takes place, with later round wins weighted more greatly. Games in pre-qualifiers, qualifiers and results of the losing team in final tournaments all carry a round weight of R=1. [7]
| Round | Weight |
|---|
| 1 | 1.0 |
| 2 | 2.0 |
| 3 | 4.0 |
| 4 | 6.0 |
| 5 | 6.0 |
While different tournaments have different formats, the semi-finals are usually round 3 or 4, while the final is usually round 4 or 5.
Cycle and updates
Rankings are now updated after every individual game in a ranking tournament (including qualifiers for such tournaments).
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United States 
Serbia 
Germany 
France 
Canada 
Spain 
Latvia 
Lithuania 
1
Brazil 
1
Slovenia 
Greece 
Italy 
Puerto Rico 
Montenegro 
Poland 
Dominican Republic 
Czech Republic 
Finland 
