Collegiate Basketball News Company was established in 1991 by Jim Sukup to bring Big Ten college basketball fans a Big Ten basketball newsletter called Collegiate Basketball News. The newsletter carried the latest in what was happening around the Big Ten along with a generous helping of statistics. The statistics included full box scores for all Big Ten games played, expanded Big Ten standings, full player-by-player team statistics, conference team and conference individual statistics, and an abbreviated version of the Rating Percentage Index (RPI). The RPI portion of the newsletter was an immediate hit, and the first issue of The RPI Report was dated January 6, 1992. Collegiate Basketball News continued through the 1992-93 season, when efforts were put into producing an expanded version of The RPI Report.

Prior to the publication of the men's RPI in Collegiate Basketball News and The RPI Report during the 1991-92 season, the term Rating Percentage Index and acronym RPI were largely unknown to the general public and to many administrators at NCAA Division I schools because the RPI ratings were not distributed to NCAA member institutions. In fact, the NCAA did not even submit the RPI ratings to Division I conferences or independent institutions until 1992 (with a notable exception in 1986). The NCAA now distributes men's and women's RPI data weekly to the public in a bare-bones manner, and the full suite of RPI information to the conferences and independent schools, after the completion of the full college basketball season. Distribution was limited prior to 2005 because the NCAA keeps the RPI data confidential within the committees that use the RPI for help with NCAA tournament selection and seeding purposes.

Publication of the RPI by CBN in 1992 created a cult following among college basketball fans throughout the land, and it is now the most widely followed college basketball computer rating system in the country. The RPI is also used by the NCAA tournament selection committees for baseball (first used in 1988), women's volleyball (1992), softball (1996), men's and women's soccer (1997), and field hockey (1998).

CBN's rpiratings.com web site was established 1997 to bring college basketball fans and CBN subscribers the most up-to-date RPI information available anywhere and to pass along additional information about Division I college basketball that is unavailable elsewhere. The RPI is the best, most informative and most widely followed college basketball computer rating system in the country, and CBN is pleased to bring this information to both our loyal The RPI Report and The Women's RPI Report subscribers, and to others that visit our free content areas.

The 2009-10 college basketball season was the 16th consecutive year that CBN made the men's RPI ratings available to the Associated Press for nationwide distribution on the AP wire and the 13th consecutive season for the women. Also, the 2014-15 season is the 22nd consecutive year that CBN provided the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook with RPI data.

Followers of college hoops have long known that there was no consistent and reliable source to turn to for access to the complete men's and women's Division I conference standings. Thankfully, this is no longer a problem. CBN provides complete men's and women's conference standings that are updated daily starting in late November. You will no longer need to hunt down the complete standings from many different sources that contain outdated or incorrect information. There is no need to surf through 32 different pages to get the complete conference standings. The CBN men's and women's standings are listed alphabetically by conference. Do you believe that you have spotted an error in the CBN men's or women's standings? If CBN verifies an error, we'll send you a complimentary issue of either the Men's or Women's Report!

The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) used the resources of CBN's RPI for the 13 years prior to its takeover in 2005-06 by the NCAA to help NIT committee members select teams for the nation's oldest men's Division I post-season tournament. The NIT also used the men's schedules compiled by CBN to help in their evaluation of prospective tournament teams. Also, the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) has used The Women's RPI Report since the 1998-99 season to help select teams for the post-season WNIT.