College Baseball 360 Week-5 Composite National Rankings

March 13, 2013
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For the second straight week, a team tumbled out of the top-10 of CB360’s exclusive Composite National Rankings. One week after Arkansas dropped from No. 2 to 19th in the CNR, Stanford plunged from 8th to 24th – after being swept at home by UNLV (which moved into the CB360 top-50, at #22). A second team took a big fall out of the CNR top-10, as previous #9 North Carolina State slipped down to 18th (after getting boatraced midweek by Elon and then dropping 2-of-3 vs. Clemson).  front-page photo courtesy of Central Arkansas

CB360 Composite National Rankings (2013) – Preseason  |  Week-2  |  Week-3  |  Week-4

The top-2 spots atop the CNR remain unchanged, with unbeaten North Carolina and Vanderbilt, while Oregon State also entered the week unbeaten and has bumped ahead of LSU into the No. 3 position. Stanford and NC State were joined by Mississippi State (#5 to #12) in dropping several spots while falling outside the CB360 top-10. The Bulldogs dropped 2-of-3 vs. visiting Central Arkansas, which jumped from 44th to 27th. Making that fall even worse, Mississippi State essentially was replaced in the top-10 by rival Ole Miss (up from 12th to 6th).

Current No. 5 South Carolina and (9) Kentucky each have moved up a spot within the CNR top-10, while UCLA slid for 7th to 8th. Unbeaten Florida State (#12 to #7) and Cal State Fullerton (#11 to #10) joined Mississippi in entering the top-10.

Indiana has climbed from 39th to 29th, after taking 2-of-3 at previous cb360 #30 Florida – while fellow Big Ten team Illinois rounds out the top-50, on the heels of its sweep at previous #48 Baylor.

Scroll down for more detailed info. on the most-recent CNR top-50 update – including the automated week-by-week chart that displays where each current top-50 CNR team has been ranked on a weekly basis in 2013.

After only one month of play, nearly 40% of the teams (19) that were in the CB360 preseason top-50 already have tumbled outside the top-50: (12) TCU, (20) San Diego, (31) Baylor, (32) New Mexico, (33) Southern Miss, (34) Coastal Carolina, (36) Kent State, (37) Wichita State, (38) East Carolina, (39) Dallas Baptist, (40) Tulane, (41) Sam Houston State, (42) Georgia, (43) St. John’s, (44) Pepperdine, (46) College of Charleston, (47) Florida Atlantic, (48) Auburn & (49) Elon. Note that USD has returned to the top-50.

The CNR formula currently comprises six elements (links to each at bottom of this page) and will expand throughout the season to include various RPI/statistical rankings, NCAA projections, etc. The six current elements include five polls/rankings, from the coaches (USA Today/ESPN), the writers (NCBWA), Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball magazine and Perfect Game, plus a small bonus for early-season RPI (per BoydsWorld.com).

The current CB360 top-10 features five teams from the SEC, two ACC, two Pac-12 and one Big West. When projecting the 16 #1 seeds in the NCAAs, based on the current CNR, there would be seven from the SEC, four Pac-12, three ACC, and one each from the Big West and BIG EAST.

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.

SCROLL DOWN for complete breakdown of the latest CNR update … 

CNR TOP-50 CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN (after week-4)
SEC
 (9 … 5 top-10, 7 top-25) – (2) Vanderbilt, (4) LSU, (5) South Carolina, (6) Mississippi, (9) Kentucky, (12) Mississippi State, (16) Arkansas, (39) Texas A&M and (45) Florida
ACC
 
(8 … 2 top-10, 5 top-25) – (1) North Carolina,  (7) Florida State, (11) Georgia Tech, (17) Virginia, (18) NC State, (28) Clemson, (31) Miami & (41) Virginia Tech
Pacific-12 (6 … 2 top-10, 6 top-25) –  (3) Oregon State, (8) UCLA, (14) Oregon, (15) Arizona State, (21) Arizona & (24) Stanford
Big West (3 … 1 top-10, 2 top-25) – (10) Cal State Fullerton, (25) Cal Poly & (32) UC Irvine
BIG EAST (3 … 2 top-25) – (13) Louisville, (19) Notre Dame & (49) Connecticut
Big 12 (3 … 1 top-10, 2 top-25) – (20) Oklahoma, (30) Oklahoma State & (36) Texas
Southland
 (3) – (27) Central Arkansas, (37) Lamar & (48) Southeastern Louisiana
Atlantic Sun (2) – (23) Florida Gulf Coast & (33) Mercer
Conference USA (2) – (26) Rice & (44) Houston
Big Ten (2) – (29) Indiana & (50) Illinois
Sun Belt (2) – (34) Louisiana-Lafayette & (43) South Alabama 
1 Each – Mountain West (#22 UNLV), West Coast (#35 San Diego), Southern (#38 Furman), Missouri Valley (#40 Missouri State), Ivy League (#42 Dartmouth), Atlantic-10 (#46 VCU) and Ohio Valley (#47 Austin Peay)

BIGGEST JUMPS WITHIN THE CNR TOP-50 – Central Arkansas (#44 to #27) … Indiana (#39 to #29) … Louisiana-Lafayette (#42 to #34) … Lamar (#44 to #37) … Mississippi (#13 to #6)

RETURNERS/NEWCOMERS TO THE CNR TOP-50 – #22 UNLV … #38 Furman … #43 South Alabama … #44 Houston … #47 Austin Peay … #49 Connecticut … and #50 Illinois  (South Alabama was in the CB360 top-50 previously this season)

DROPPED OUT OF THE CNR TOP-50 – #29 Alabama … #37 Liberty … #46 Pepperdine … #47 Southern Mississippi … #48 Baylor … #49 San Diego State … #50 Appalachian State

BIGGEST DROPS WITHIN THE CNR TOP-50 – Stanford (#8 to #24) … Virginia Tech (#25 to #41) … Florida (#30 to #45) … UC Irvine (#22 to #32) … NC State (#9 to #18) … Mississippi State (#5 to #12) … Southeastern Louisiana (#41 to #48)

COLLEGE BASEBALL 360 COMPOSITE TOP-50 (#5)
(updated after week-4, through games on March 10, 2013)

RankTeamPtsAfter Week-3After Week-2After Week-12013 Preseason
1North Carolina99.851112
2Vanderbilt98.182333
3Oregon State97.254589
4LSU97.163444
5South Carolina94.926667
6Mississippi93.2013151722
7Florida State92.5912131415
8UCLA92.547855
9Kentucky90.0210101011
10Cal State Fullerton89.9911182123
11Georgia Tech89.9516201918
12Mississippi State88.96591213
13Louisville88.1817192016
14Oregon84.4314778
15Arizona State84.3921263027
16Arkansas83.9319221
17Virginia83.0820242829
18North Carolina State81.959121110
19Notre Dame 80.1524294150
20Oklahoma79.7015161817
21Arizona78.2118171619
22UNLV 74.97
23Florida Gulf Coast 74.332822
24Stanford73.4881196
25Cal Poly 68.78272838
26Rice68.5123141321
27Central Arkansas65.8244
28Clemson62.9731272928
29Indiana62.3839
30Oklahoma State60.303238
31Miami59.8426232526
32UC Irvine59.6322212230
33Mercer56.293336
34Louisiana-Lafayette54.784243
35San Diego53.93363320
36Texas53.9135252724
37Lamar52.4545
38Furman 49.36
39Texas A&M48.6940372625
40Missouri State48.2934354935
41Virginia Tech48.1925313145
42Dartmouth 48.1343
43South Alabama48.0834
44Houston47.68
45Florida45.4030331514
46VCU45.36384636
47Austin Peay 44.85
48Southeastern Louisiana44.654146
49Connecticut43.63
50Illinois 43.60

**

COMPOSITE NATIONAL RANKINGS (CNR) CRITERIA: As the season progresses, CB360′s 100-point Composite National Rankings formula ultimately becomes centered around upwards of 16 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.).

For the current CNR formula, a slight bonus (max. +0.6 pts) was awarded based on early-season RPI (per BoydsWorld.com).

Here are links to the six criteria currently used in the CNR, as of March 12, 2013:
• National Coaches Poll (USA Today/ESPN); top-20 plus rec. votes
• National Collegiate Baseball Writers poll (top-30, plus rec. votes)
• Baseball America poll (top-25)
• Colllegiate Baseball magazine rankings (top-30)
• Perfect Game rankings (top-25, plus others to watch)
• Boyds World early-season RPI; top-60 (slight bonus; max. +0.6 pts)

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