The ESPN ratings appear to be the judgements of Charlie Creme and a couple of staffers. But they do appear to look closely at the on-going NCAA NET rankings:
ACC - nine teams in - last team in is Syracuse with a current.NET ranking of #45.
Big Ten - eight teams in - last team in is Michigan with a current NET ranking of #43
SEC - eight teams in - last team in is Tennessee with a current NET ranking of #55
PAC12 - seven teams in - last team in is Oregon State with a current NET ranking of #22.
Our own current NET ranking is #58. Our biggest drop in NET came after the Utah loss because of their victory margin. Before that, we were down to a NET of #48.
Our best bet will be to finish seventh in the PAC12 with an upset of a more highly-ranked team (e.g., USC) along the way, and then to do well in the PAC12 tournament. I think we definitely have to win this weekend in order to keep up.