South Carolina and Florida State remained 1-2 in the mid-March update to CB360′s 100-point Composite National Rankings (CNR), following the fifth week of play in the 2014 season (through games as of March 16). The Gamecocks narrowly held off the Seminoles for the top spot (99.39 to 99.34, a virtual tie for #1 in the CNR). There are three new teams in the CNR top-10 – as Cal Poly moved from 11th to 8th, North Carolina returned to the top-10 (#13 to #9) and Rice also is back, at #10 (up from 16th).
Previous CB360 Top-50 from 2014 Season:
Week-5 | Week-4 | Week-3 | Week-2 | Preseason
South Carolina and Florida State remained 1-2 in the mid-March update to CB360′s 100-point Composite National Rankings CNR), following the fifth week of play in the 2014 season (though games as of March 16). There are three new teams in the CNR top-10 – as Cal Poly moved from 11th to 8th, North Carolina returned to the top-10 (#13 to #9) and Rice also is back, at #10 (up from 16th).
Cal Poly and Louisiana-Lafayette (up from 10th to 7th) are in the top-10 for the first time in the seven-year history of the CB360 top-50 composite rankings. Elsewhere in the top-10, current #3 Vanderbilt and (4) Virginia swapped spots, while Oregon State remained in the 5th spot, one ahead of rival Oregon (#6, up from 9th). Three preseason top-10 teams slipped outside the top-10: LSU (#7 to #11), NC State (#6 to #13) and Cal State Fullerton, which tumbled from 8th to 17th.
There was major shuffling throughout the CNR, with nine new teams enterimg/re-entering the top-50: (27) Alabama, (34) New Mexico, (37) Auburn, (38) San Diego State, (42) Washington, (44) Oklahoma, (48) Dallas Baptist, (49) Baylor and (50) Liberty, with Alabama, UNM, OU, Baylor & Liberty all being in the top-50 earlier this season. The nine teams that dropped out of the top-50 (several of them west-coast squads): (34) Pepperdine, (35) UC Irvine, (37) Fresno State, (38) Cal, (38) Florida Atlantic, (41) Georgia Southern, (43) Arizona State, (44) Arkansas and (46) UAB.
Among the teams in the 2014 CB360 preseason top-50, more than 40% of them (21) have slipped out of the top-50 at some point during the season: (18) Kansas State, (21) Arizona State, (26) Alabama, (28) Arizona, (29) East Carolina, (30) Arkansas, (31) Florida Atlantic, (34) Oklahoma, (35) Georgia Tech, (36) UNC Wilmington, (38) Western Carolina, (39) Nebraska, (40) New Mexico, (41) Wichita State, (42) Stanford, (43) Coastal Carolina, (45) Liberty, (45) UNLV, (46) Mercer, (49) Washington State and (50) North Florida.
South Carolina has followed Cal State Fullerton and Florida State as teams that already have held the top ranking in the CB360 top-50.
Here are some of the midseason success stories, based on the CNR:
• Louisiana-Lafayette cb360 preseason #24, now #7
• Cal Poly preseason #27 (now #8)
• Ole Miss preseason #32 (now #12)
• Sam Houston State preseason #46 (now #19)
• UC Santa Barbara preseason #37 (now #22)
• Houston preseason #50 (now #23)
• Kentucky preseason #44 (now #25)
Teams making this biggest jump this week within the CB360 top-50: San Diego (#31 to #21) … Kansas (#42 to #31) … Indiana State (#49 to #40) … Seton Hall (#33 to #26) … VCU (#40 to #33) … UNLV (#48 to #41). Those making big drops within the top-50: Florida Intertnational (#26 to #39) … Texas A&M (#30 to #43) … Miami (#19 to #30) … Mississippi State (#17 to #24) … Indiana (#25 to #32).
Half of the teams in the CB360 preseason top-10 now find themselves outside of the top-10, including Indiana (preseason #7) all the way down at 32nd and current #24 Mississippi State (opened season at #4). Cal State Fullerton was the CB360 preseason #1 (now 17), while LSU started the season #6 (now 11th) and current #13 NC State was 8th in the preseason.
Note that – due to the RPI numbers still evolving at this point – a handful of teams were not included near the bottom of the current top-50 if their only metric was the Warren Nolan RPI (i.e. not in any of the polls also used in the current CNR formular).
CB360 Composite Top-50 Rankings for 2014 – Week 6 (thru games of 3–16–14)
(rank) Team – CNR pts (previous: week-5 CNR … week-4 … week-3 … week-2… preseason CNR)
1. South Carolina – 99.39 (1 … 3 … 8 … 9 … 12 preseason)
2. Florida State – 99.34 (2 … 1 … 1 … 3 … 5)
3. Vanderbilt – 96.59 (4 … 5 … 6 … 7 … 10)
4. Virginia – 94.97 (3 … 2 … 2 … 4 … 3)
5. Oregon State – 92.30 (5 … 6 … 5 … 2 … 2)
6. Oregon – 90.06 (9 … 9 … 7 … 8 … 9)
7. Louisiana-Lafayette – 89.87 (10 … 12 … 18 … 21 … 24)
8. Cal Poly – 88.82 (11 … 13 … 16 … 24 … 27)
9. North Carolina – 88.08 (13 … 15 … 17 … 13 … 13)
10. Rice – 86.52 (16 … 18 … 11 … 15 … 15)
11. LSU – 86.32 (7 … 8 … 3 … 6 … 6)
12. Mississippi – 84.52 (15 … 19 … 30 … 30 … 32)
13. North Carolina State – 83.83 (6 … 7 … 9 … 10 … 8)
14. Texas – 82.93 (12 … 16 … 23 … 26 … 23)
15. Louisville – 82.18 (14 … 14 … 13 … 14 … 14)
16. Clemson – 81.99 (18 … 17 … 12 … 16 … 16)
17. Cal State Fullerton – 81.89 (8 … 4 … 4 … 1 … 1)
18. Tennessee – 80.76 (21 … 31 … 46 … – … –)
19. Sam Houston State – 79.42 (24 … 25 … 41 … 41 … 46)
20. UCLA – 78.15 (22 … 11 … 14 … 11 … 11)
21. San Diego – 77.50 (31 … 27 … 37 … 36 … 33)
22. UC Santa Barbara – 77.07 (23 … 49 … 40 … 45 … 37)
23. Houston – 74.44 (29 … 42 … 41 … 41 … 50)
24. Mississippi State – 73.58 (17 … 10 … 10 … 5 … 4)
25. Kentucky – 64.74 (20 … 21 … 33 … 35 … 44)
26. Seton Hall – 64.25 (33 … 35 … – … – … –)
27. Alabama – 63.19 (– … 38 … 26 … 25 … 26)
28. Texas Tech – 60.16 (28 … 34 … 32 … 33 … –)
29. Oklahoma State – 59.34 (27 … 22 … 19 … 19 … 20)
30. Miami – 59.32 (19 … 20 … 15 … 17 … 17)
31. Kansas – 59.21 (42 … 32 … – … – … –)
32. Indiana – 59.09 (25 … 24 … 24 … 12 … 7)
33. VCU – 55.62 (40 … 41 … – … – … –)
34. New Mexico – 55.25 (– … 46 … 45 … 50 … 40)
35. TCU – 54.72 (32 … 26 … 20 … 22 … 22)
36. Memphis – 54.25 (36 … 39 … – … – … –)
37. Auburn – 52.55 (– … – …. – … – … –)
38. San Diego State – 52.31 (– … – … – … – … – …)
39. Florida International – 52.14 (26 … 28 … 48 … – … –)
40. Indiana State – 51.94 (49 … – … – … – … –)
41. UNLV – 51.08 (48 … – … – … – … –)
42. Washington – 50.65 (– … – … – … – … –)
43. Texas A&M – 49.59 (30 … 37 … 22 … 23 … 25)
44. Oklahoma – 48.73 (– … – … 50 … 40 … 34)
45. Florida – 48.45 (44 … 46 … 21 … 18 … 19)
46. Maryland – 47.17 (50 … 48 … – … – … –)
47. College of Charleston – 46.65 (47 … 30 … – … – … –)
48. Dallas Baptist – 45.75 (– … – … – … – … –)
49. Baylor – 43.67 (– … – … – … 49 … –)
50. Liberty – 43.08 (– … – … – … – … 45)
dropped out of top-50:
34. Pepperdine – 51.96 (34 … – … – … – … –)
35. UC Irvine – 50.24 (35 … – … – … – … –)
37. Fresno State – 47.13 (37 … 23 … – … – … –)
38. California – 46.74 (38 … 40 … – … – … –)
39. Florida Atlantic – 46.70 (39 … 33 … 31 … 31 … 31)
41. Georgia Southern – 46.14 (41 … – … – … – … –)
43. Arizona State – 44.62 (43 … 36 … 27 … 20 … 21)
44. Arkansas – 43.79 (44 … 29 … 25 … 28 … 30)
46. UAB – 43.56 (46 … – … – … – … –)
Other teams that have dropped out of the CNR top-50 so far in 2014:
• Kansas State (#18 preseason, #27 after week-1, #28 after week-2)
• Alabama (#26 preseason … #25 after week-1 … #26 after week-2 … #38 after week-3) – has returned to top-50
• Arizona (#28 preseason, #29 after week-1 & week-2)
• East Carolina (#29 preseason, #32 after week-1, #34 after week-2)
• Oklahoma (#34 preseason, #40 after week-2, #50 after week-2) – has returned to current top-50
• Georgia Tech (#35 preseason, #38 after week-1 & week-2)
• UNC Wilmington (#36 preseason, #37 after week-1, #36 after week-2)
• Western Carolina (#38 preseason, #48 after week-1, #44 after week-2, #45 after week-3)
• Nebraska (#39 preseason & after week-1, #35 after week-2)
• New Mexico (#40 preseason, #50 after week-1, #45 after week-2)
• Wichita State (#41 preseason, #46 week-2, #47 after week-2)
• Stanford (#42 preseason and #47 after week-1)
• Coastal Carolina (#43 preseason)
• Liberty (#45 preseason) – has returned to current top-50
• UNLV (#46 preseason and #34 after week-1) – has returned to current top-50
• Mercer (#46 preseason, #41 after week-1 & week-2, #50 after week-3)
• Washington State (#49 preseason and #41 after week-1)
• North Florida (#50 preseason and #48 after week-1)
• Baylor (#49 after week-2) – has returned to current top-50
• Tennessee Tech (#42 after week-3
• USC (#39 after week-2, #42 after week-3)
Note – 15 teams that were in the top-50 of the final 2013 CNR, at end of the regular season, were not in the 2014 preseason CNR top-50: (17) South Alabama, (19) Virginia Tech, (23) Troy, (29) Pittsburgh, (30) Campbell, (37) South Florida, (41) Seton Hall, (42) Gonzaga, (43) Michigan State, (44) Austin Peay, (45) Maryland, (46) UC Irvine, (47) Notre Dame, (48) Illinois and (50) Ohio State.
COMPOSITE NATIONAL RANKINGS (CNR) CRITERIA: 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 only are used 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:
• National Coaches Poll (USA Today/ESPN)
• National Collegiate Baseball Writers poll
• Baseball America poll
• Collegiate Baseball magazine rankings
• Perfect Game preseason rankings
• Warren Nolan RPI