The new NAIA rankings came out yesterday and both the Lion and Lady Lion teams stayed near their spots in the pre-season poll, with the Lions moving up two spots to No. 16 and the Lady Lions dropping one spot to No. 7.

The women's poll was a tough one to figure out going into the day of the ranking release, largely because both the pre-season No. 1 and No. 2 suffered a loss, but both were against highly ranked teams.  No. 1 Union lost on a neutral court to No. 7 St. Xavier, while No. 2 Vanguard lost on the road to No. 4 Point Loma Nazarene for their only losses of the season.  Aside from the two schools pulling the upsets, every other team in the pre-season top 10 took at least one loss and most of them had exactly one loss.

That's a large reason why the Lady Lions went from No. 6 to No. 7 despite bringing an 8-1 record to the table with four wins over preseason top 25 teams.  FHU's lone loss came on the road to then-No. 14 Columbia and probably looked pretty bad to the raters since the final score was 85-60.  Whether or not the margin of defeat played a part in the drop, who knows?  But it would have been difficult for any of the five teams that started the season above the Lady Lions to move below them, and after St. Xavier's 10-0 start (including the Union upset) it was also impossible for the Lady Cougars to not jump a few spots.

While the women's poll had little movement top-to-bottom, the men's poll was the exact opposite.  The Lions' strength of schedule surely played a part in their two-spot jump despite having three losses, since FHU posted a 4-2 record against teams in the preseason top 25.  The number of teams that fell out of the top 25 from the initial poll also could have been a factor.  Eight teams from the preseason poll fell out of the top 25, while seven others moved up or down at least five spots in the new poll.  A lot more movement on the men's side, but that is typical.

The Lions' opponent for Friday is one of the eight teams that dropped from the top 25 - preseason No. 13 Lee University.  FHU beat Lee, 90-86 in double overtime, earlier this season at Lee.  The Flames, a perenniel national tournament team, will no doubt be coming to the Sports Center with something to prove this weekend.

In fact, if you have the afternoon off on Friday, you can see both teams in action.  The Lady Lions play Lane College in McKenzie at 2:00 in Bethel's classic, and the Lions tip their game off at 6:00 PM.