Predictive Metrics · League Strength

League strength: Europe vs. NCAA Power 5

Seasons 2021-22 to 2025-26 12,117 player moves · 28 leagues · NCAA Power 5 = 100

How strong is each league — measured against college basketball

Bars to the right are stronger than a Power 5 conference, bars to the left weaker. Darker means stronger. The four NCAA levels sit in the list where they rank.

1NBA ◆140.6
2EuroLeague111.6
3NBA G League ◆110.8
4Spain ACB110.6
5EuroCup106.1
6France Pro A105.9
7Italy Serie A104.9
8Basketball Champions League104.1
9Australia NBL103.4
10ABA Liga103.3
11Israel Winner103.0
12Greece GBL102.3
13Turkey BSL102.2
14Germany BBL100.1
NCAA Power 5100
15VTB United League99.3
16Lithuania LKL97.9
17Poland PLK94.4
18Spain LEB Oro ◆94.2
19France Pro B93.6
NCAA High-Major90
20Italy A2 ◆87.5
21BNXT League85.7
22Hungary NBI84.6
23China CBA ◆83.2
24Germany ProA82.9
NCAA Mid-Major83
25Estonia-Latvia League82.5
26Czechia NBL81.7
27Bulgaria NBL thin data80.6
NCAA Low-Major80
28Finland Korisliiga77.7

◆ league profile — hover for details · Hover any row for its 90 % range · The NBA (140.6) is beyond the scale.

What the number means

A player who produces 20 points, rebounds and assists per 36 minutes in a Power 5 conference would be expected to produce about 17.9 in the EuroLeague (111.6) and about 20.2 in the VTB United League (99.3). Higher number, harder league.

How we measure

  1. We follow the players who moved. Every player who changed leagues from one season to the next, and every player who played his national league and a European cup in the same season — 12,117 cases between 2021-22 and 2025-26.
  2. We compare what they produced before and after. Points, rebounds and assists per 36 minutes, adjusted for pace — so the 30-second shot clock in college does not read as a weaker league.
  3. We put every league on one scale. All moves are fitted together, so two leagues can be compared even when few players went directly between them. NCAA Power 5 is set to 100.

How sure we are

0.98Split the players into two random halves and rank each half on its own: the order agrees this closely (1.00 = identical, median of 20 splits).
3.9 %Moves in both directions between the same two leagues agree to within this margin (12 league pairs checked).
90 %Every league carries a range: where its value landed in 90 % of 1,000 resamples. Hover a row to see it. Leagues with little data are marked.

The value describes a league average. A single player's move varies far more than the league does. Every check was fixed before the first number was computed. Methodology →