Florida Tops The Coaches’ Poll…
Florida is the number one team in the USA Today/ESPN College Baseball 2012 Preseason Poll. The coaches’ poll is the third preseason ranking to be released to date, and Florida has topped all three (Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America are the other two.
Two-time defending national champion South Carolina is second, followed by Stanford, North Carolina and Texas in the top five. Texas A&M, Rice, Arkansas, Florida State, and Georgia Tech round out the preseason top 10.
Stanford is the only school among the top six in the poll that did not reach the 2011 College World Series.
Six SEC and ACC teams are in the top 25, the Pac-12 has five.
College Baseball 360 will release our 2012 Preseason Top 50 Composite Poll in the coming weeks.
Jan 26, 2012
1. Florida
2. South Carolina
3. Stanford
4. North Carolina
5. Texas
6. Texas A&M
7. Rice
8. Arkansas
9. Florida State
10. Georgia Tech
11. TCU
12. Vanderbilt
13. Miami (Fla)
14. LSU
15. Oklahoma
16. Cal State Fullerton
17. Virginia
18. UCLA
19. Oregon State
20. Arizona
21. St. John’s
22. California
23. Clemson
24. Louisville
25. Georgia
Others receiving votes: UC-Irvine (43-18) 102; Connecticut (45-20-1) 29; Mississippi State (38-25) 28; Baylor (31-28) 27; Dallas Baptist (42-20) 25; Oregon (33-26) 24; Stetson (43-20) 23; Southern Mississippi (39-19) 20; Fresno State (40-16) 13; Kent State (45-17) 13; Oklahoma State (35-25) 12; East Carolina (41-21) 9; Troy (43-19) 9; North Carolina State (35-27) 8; Georgia Southern (36-26) 7; Creighton (45-16) 6; Mississippi (30-25) 6; Missouri State (33-23) 6; Southern California (25-31) 6; Illinois (30-27) 5; Wichita State (39-26) 5; Alabama (35-28) 4; Belmont (38-26) 4; Coastal Carolina (42-20) 4; Pittsburgh (33-23) 4; Central Florida (39-23) 3; UNC-Wilmington (31-28) 3; College of Charleston (39-22) 1; Jacksonville (37-24) 1; James Madison (42-19) 1; Oral Roberts (39-22) 1; Southeastern Louisiana (35-22) 1; Stony Brook (42-12) 1.
The USA TODAY/ESPN Board of Coaches is made up of 31 coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the American Baseball Coaches Association. The board for the 2012 season: Terry Alexander, Jacksonville; John Anderson, Minnesota; Ed Blankmeyer, St. John’s; Rob Cooper, Wright State; Sherman Corbett, Texas-San Antonio; Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt; Barry Davis, Rider; Greg DiCenzo, Holy Cross; Mike Gaski, UNC-Greensboro; Nino Giarratano, San Francisco; Gary Gilmore, Coastal Carolina; Keith Guttin, Missouri State; Danny Hall, Georgia Tech; Carlton Hardy, Savannah State; Donny Harrel, Seattle University; Loren Hibbs, Charlotte; Charlie Hickey, Central Connecticut State; George Horton, Oregon; Steve Jaksa, Central Michigan; Omar Johnson, Jackson State; Rick Jones, Tulane; John Musachio, Oakland (Mich.); Bobby Pierce, Troy; Gary Powers, Nevada; Mark Scalf, UNC-Wilmington; Jim Schlossnagle, TCU; Jim Schmitz, Eastern Illinois; Matt Senk, Stony Brook; Doug Smith, UC-Riverside; Steve Smith, Baylor; Bob Whalen, Dartmouth.