The April 3 CNR Top-50, Presented By Dugouthats.com…
There were plenty of big matchups and corresponding upsets during the final of week of March, leading to some notable shifts within the CB360 Composite National Rankings (CNR). Despite losing its series vs. Mississippi (which moved up from #18 to #14), top-ranked Florida retained the top spot while a pair of ACC teams moved into the #2 and #3 spots: Florida State (up from #4) and North Carolina (previously #5).
With the season at the midpoint, the CNR has added an RPI component (per WarrenNolan.com) to the formula, with more RPI factors to be added to the CNR over the next few weeks.
Arizona’s sweep of Stanford vaulted the Wildcats from #13 to #6, while the Cardinal slipped from #2 to #8. Similarly in the SEC, LSU rose from #14 to #11 after sweeping previous #3 Arkansas (now #9). Two other teams moved up in the top-10, with Kentucky bumping from #6 to #4 and UCLA #8 to #5. A couple teams, #7 Texas A&M and #10 South Carolina, retained their spots, with Miami sliding outside the top-10 (#9 to #13).
Two teams – current #7 Texas A&M (up from #12) and #8 UCLA (formerly #11) – have returned to the top-10, replacing Arizona (dropped from #7 to #13) and Rice (fell from #8 to #11). Despite suffering its first loss of the season, Kentucky moved up from #9 to #6 (maybe a delayed poll bump from some around the country?) while Miami slid up one spot to #9 and South Carolina (previously #6) now holds down the final spot in the top-10.
It’s a bit early to begin looking too closely at RPI-type numbers (a lot can change during conference play), but the CNR will start incorporating those factors into next week’s top-50 update.
Earlier CB360 Composite National Rankings (2012 season) …
• Preseason … • Update #2 … • Update #3 … • Update #4 … Update #5 … Update #6 … Update #7
The CB360 top-10 now includes four teams from the SEC and three Pac-12, plus two ACC and one out of the Big 12. When projecting the 16 #1 seeds in the NCAAs, based on the current CNR, there would be six from the SEC, three ACC, three Pac-12, two Big 12, and one each from Conference USA and the Big West. More than half of the current top-50 come from either the SEC (9), ACC (9) or Pac-12 (8).
Scroll down for the complete CB360 top-50, along with various breakdowns from this update. Information on the CNR formula is included at the bottom of this page.
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SCROLL DOWN for complete breakdown of the latest CNR update …
CNR TOP-50 CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN (after week-7)
SEC (9 … 4 top-10, 7 top-25) – #1 Florida, #4 Kentucky, #9 Arkansas, #10 South Carolina, #11 LSU, #14 Mississippi, #24 Auburn, #30 Georgia & #42 Mississippi State
ACC (9 … 2 top-10, 4 top-25) – #2 Florida State, #3 North Carolina, #13 Miami, #17 North Carolina State, #28 Georgia Tech, #31 Virginia, #43 Wake Forest, #47 Clemson & #50 Maryland
Pacific-12 (8 … 3 top-10, 5 top-25) – #5 UCLA, #6 Arizona, #8 Stanford, #20 Oregon State, #21 Oregon, #27 Arizona State, #40 California & #45 Washington
Big 12 (4 … 1 top-10, 3 top-25) – #7 Texas A&M, #16 Baylor, #23 Texas & #32 Oklahoma
Big West (3) – #15 Cal State Fullerton, #39 UC Irvine and #44 Cal Poly
Conference USA (3 … 2 top-25) – #12 Rice, #18 Central Florida & #29 East Carolina
Southern (3) – #33 Appalachian State, #46 Elon and #49 College of Charleston
Big South (2) – #34 Coastal Carolina & #41 Liberty
Southland (2) – #35 Texas State & #37 Sam Houston State
West Coast (2) – #22 San Diego & #38 Gonzaga
1 Each – Big Ten (#19 Purdue) … BIG EAST (#25 Louisville) … Western Athletic (#26 New Mexico State) … Missoui Valley (#36 Missouri State) … Mountain West (#48 TCU
BIGGEST JUMPS IN THE CNR TOP-50 – New Mexico State (#40 to #26) … Appalachian State (#43 to #33) … Texas State (#45 to #35) … UC Irvine (#48 to #39) … East Carolina (#37 to #29) … Gonzaga (#46 to #38)
NEWCOMERS/RETURNERS TO THE CNR TOP-50 – #37 Sam Houston State, #43 Wake Forest and #46 Elon (WFU and Elon were in top-50 earlier in the 2012 season)
DROPPED OUT OF THE CNR TOP-50 – #42 Campbell, #47 Pepperdine and #50 Southeastern Louisiana
BIGGEST DROPS WITHIN THE CNR TOP-50 – Maryland (#31 to #50) … Cal Poly (#35 to #45) … Mississippi State (#32 to #42) … TCU (#38 to #48) … Georgia (#21 to #30) … College of Charleston (#41 to #49)
COLLEGE BASEBALL 360 COMPOSITE TOP-50 #8
(updated after week-7, through games on April 1, 2012)
Rank. Team … CNR Points (previous week)
1. Florida … 99.40 (1)
2. Florida State … 98.20 (4)
3. North Carolina … 96.37 (5)
4. Kentucky … 94.98 (6)
5. UCLA … 94.06 (8)
6. Arizona … 93.24 (13)
7. Texas A&M … 92.56 (7)
8. Stanford … 91.67 (2)
9. Arkansas … 88.02 (3)
10. South Carolina … 88.01 (10)
11. LSU … 87.75 (14)
11. Rice … 87.75 (11)
13. Miami … 85.55 (9)
14. Mississippi … 84.41 (18)
15. Cal State Fullerton … 84.00 (12)
16. Baylor … 83.86 (22)
17. North Carolina State … 82.49 (16)
18. Central Florida … 82.47 (15)
19. Purdue … 79.92 (19)
20. Oregon State … 79.28 (23)
21. Oregon … 78.94 (17)
22. San Diego … 74.81 (26)
23. Texas … 71.09 (20)
24. Auburn … 70.60 (27)
25. Louisville … 65.25 (25)
26. New Mexico State … 62.80 (40)
27. Arizona State … 60.01 (24)
28. Georgia Tech … 59.78 (28)
29. East Carolina … 58.12 (37)
30. Georgia … 57.45 (21)
31. Virginia … 56.58 (33)
32. Oklahoma … 56.39 (30)
33. Appalachian State … 55.61 (43)
34. Coastal Carolina … 55.29 (39)
35. Texas State … 54.85 (45)
36. Missouri State … 54.40 (29)
37. Sam Houston State … 53.22 (–)
38. Gonzaga … 52.44 (46)
39. UC Irvine … 52.27 (48)
40. California … 51.93 (36)
41. Liberty … 51.75 (34)
42. Mississippi State … 51.54 (32)
43. Wake Forest … 51.26 (43)
44. Cal Poly … 50.81 (35)
45. Washington … 49.77 (44)
46. Elon … 49.70 ( –)
47. Clemson … 48.97 (49)
48. TCU … 48.61 (38)
49. College of Charleston … 48.01 (41)
50. Maryland … 47.80 (31)
Next 5 – Indiana State, Pepperdine, Campbell, Tulane and USC
Dropped out of top-50: #42 Campbell, #47 Pepperdine and #50 Southeastern Louisiana
COMPOSITE NATIONAL RANKINGS (CNR) CRITERIA: As the season progresses, CB360′s 100-point Composite National Rankings formula ultimately will be centered around upwards of 15 core ingredients – plus a bonus/penalty factor based on record over final-10 games. The CNR combines a diverse collection of “experts” (ranging from coaches, various media, computer calculations and postseason projections) – to help provide a preview of teams that could be in the running for the 2012 NCAA Championship field (hypothetically 50 teams, plus 14 others from lower-rated automatic-bid conferences).
Teams receive points based on their standings in each poll/rating/projection (60 pts for #1; 59 for #2, etc.). For polls involving voting points (coaches and CB) and the various RPI-type ratings, the CNR adjusts to reward teams that have larger margins in the voting/point totals (whereas two teams with nearly the same voting-point total will be closer in the CNR allotment for that poll). Note that strength-of-schedule typically is factored into RPI formulations … thus the actual SOS numbers are used only early in the season (SOS are not used in the CNR when RPI already are in the mix). For the NCAA field projections, teams are awarded CNR points based on their respective seedings, “last in” and “last out,” etc.
The polls/ratings/projections are averaged, with 40 points typically then added to each total in order to yield the 100-point benchmark. Early in the season (projected SOS) and late in the season (final-10 games), a maximum bonus/penalty of 0.3 (SOS) or 0.5 points (final-10) is factored into the formula (in that case, 39.7 or 39.5, rather than 40, is added to the poll/rating/projection avg.).
Here are links to the six criteria currently used in the CNR, as of April 3, 2012:
• National Coaches Poll (USA Today/ESPN), preseason/no update after opening week
• National Collegiate Baseball Writers poll
• Baseball America poll
• Colllegiate Baseball magazine rankings
• Perfect Game rankings
• RPI (per WarrenNolan.com)