The Vanderbilt Commodores won top honors for the best overall schedule strength at the end of the 2017 regular season through games of Selection Sunday. In addition, Vandy had the No. 3 rank of opponents' RPI played, along with the No. 1 opponents' won-lost record of 676-401 (.6277) in the regular season, which are both alternate ways of determining schedule strength. Louisville had the No. 1 rank of opponents' RPI played. The Commodores received an at-large bid to the 2017 NCAA tournament with a No. 9 seed but lost to No. 8 seed Northwestern 68-66 in the first round. Since 1991, 22 of the 27 teams holding the No. 1 schedule strength rank at the end of the regular season were in the NCAA tournament, and 23 of those 27 teams were in post-season play. (Georgia, in 2003, was ineligible.) However, having the No. 1 schedule strength does not guarantee success in the NCAA tournament. In 7 of the last 17 seasons, the team holding top schedule strength honors has lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament. In the 10 years prior to that, not a single team with the No. 1 schedule strength that made the NCAA tournament lost in the first round, although 3 of those teams did not make the NCAA tournament. The best NCAA tournament performance for a team with the best regular-season schedule strength since 1991 was North Carolina in 1997, which lost in the national semifinals to eventual national champion Arizona. Notre Dame had the best regular-season schedule strength in 1992 with a 14-14 record and finished second in the NIT.

The Division I record shown below is for the final, regular season.

Teams with No. 1 Schedule Strength, Final Regular Season, since 1991

 
        RS                  Div. I   
Year   RPI   Team           Record    Postseason                    
1991    21   Georgetown*    14-12     No. 8 seed, 1-1 in tournament
1992    32   Notre Dame     14-14     NIT, 2nd place
1993     1   Indiana        28-3      No. 1 seed, 3-1 in tournament
1994    21   Virginia       17-12     No. 7 seed, 1-1 in tournament
1995    68   Duke           13-18     None
1996     9   Georgia Tech   21-11     No. 3 seed, 2-1 in tournament
1997     3   North Carolina 24-6      No. 1 seed, 4-1 in tournament
1998     7   Maryland       19-10     No. 4 seed, 2-1 in tournament
1999    54   Florida St.    13-17     None
2000     2   Kentucky       21-9      No. 5 seed, 1-1 in tournament
2001    23   Georgia        16-14     No. 8 seed, 0-1 in tournament
2002     6   Arizona        22-9      No. 3 seed, 2-1 in tournament
2003     5   Georgia        19-8      Ineligible
2004    12   Florida        20-10     No. 5 seed, 0-1 in tournament
2005     2   Kansas         23-6      No. 3 seed, 0-1 in tournament
2006    17   Syracuse       23-11     No. 5 seed, 0-1 in tournament
2007    13   Kentucky       21-11     No. 8 seed, 1-1 in tournament
2008     1   Tennessee      28-4      No. 2 seed, 2-1 in tournament
2009   114   Virginia       10-18     None
2010     7   Georgetown     23-10     No. 3 seed, 0-1 in tournament
2011    15   Georgetown     21-11     No. 6 seed, 0-1 in tournament
2012     3   Michigan St.   26-7      No. 1 seed, 2-1 in tournament
2013     1   Duke           27-5      No. 2 seed, 3-1 in tournament
2014     3   Kansas         24-9      No. 2 seed, 1-1 in tournament
2015     3   Kansas         26-8      No. 2 seed, 1-1 in tournament
2016     2   Oregon         27-6      No. 1 seed, 3-1 in tournament
2017    38   Vanderbilt     19-15     No. 9 seed, 0-1 in tournament
* Georgetown was 4-0 against non-Division I opponents in 1991