USA Today/ESPN College Baseball Coaches’ Poll-March 8

Three Traditional Powers Fall From The Rankings

March 8, 2010

Rank
 School (first-place votes)
Record
Points
Last week
1
 LSU (25)
11-0
768
1
2
 Florida State (3)
10-0
733
3
3
 Arizona State (2)
11-0
700
4
4
 Virginia (1)
9-2
673
2
5
 Georgia Tech
10-1
584
7
6
 Texas
8-3
553
5
7
 Clemson
9-1
520
9
8
 Florida
7-2
516
6
9
 TCU
8-2
507
8
10
 Coastal Carolina
10-1
483
10
11
 Louisville
11-0
455
13
12
 North Carolina
10-1
444
12
13
 UCLA
9-0
347
18
14
 Miami (Fla.)
7-3
336
11
15
 Oklahoma
11-1
305
22
16
 Arkansas
8-2
285
17
17
 Mississippi
9-2
251
19
18
 Oregon State
7-3
232
15
19
 Rice
7-5
193
20
20
 Vanderbilt
10-1
183
NR
21
 East Carolina
7-3
170
21
22
 Kentucky
9-1
104
NR
23
 Ohio State
8-2
100
25
24
 UC-Irvine
6-5
88
16
25
 Alabama
8-1
83
NR

Dropped out: No. 14 Cal State-Fullerton (4-6), No. 23 South Carolina (6-4), No. 24 Stanford (7-4).

Others receiving votes: North Carolina State 73; Stanford 63; Cal State-Fullerton 59; Texas A&M 53; Wichita State 41; South Carolina 35; Kansas State 28; Washington State 21; Georgia 19; Southeastern Louisiana 19; Western Kentucky 11; Oklahoma State 10; Florida International 8; New Mexico 5; Houston 4; St. John’s 4; Liberty 3; Oregon 3; Middle Tennessee 2; Arizona 1.

The 2010 board: 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 2010 season: Terry Alexander, Jacksonville; John Anderson, Minnesota; Ed Blankmeyer, St. John’s; Rob Cooper, Wright State; Sherman Corbett, Texas-San Antonio; Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt; David Eldredge, Southern Utah; Mike Gaski, North Carolina-Greensboro; Nino Giarratano, San Francisco; Gary Gilmore, Coastal Carolina; Keith Guttin, Missouri State; Danny Hall, Georgia Tech; Daniel Heefner, Dallas Baptist; Loren Hibbs, Charlotte; Charlie Hickey, Central Connecticut State; George Horton, Oregon; Steve Jaksa, Central Michigan; Omar Johnson, Jackson State; Rick Jones, Tulane; Steve Kittrell, South Alabama; Paul Kostacopoulos, Navy; Kevin Leighton, Manhattan; Gary McClure, Austin Peay; Mervyl Melendez, Bethune-Cookman; Gary Powers, Nevada; Mark Scalf, North Carolina-Wilmington; Jim Schlossnagle, TCU; Matt Senk, Stony Brook; Doug Smith, UC-Riverside; Steve Smith, Baylor; Bob Whalen, Dartmouth.

March 8, 2010 | Filed Under COLLEGE BASEBALL NEWS, POLLS | Leave a Comment 

Baseball America College Baseball Poll-March 8

Fullerton Falls From This Week’s Rankings

DURHAM, N.C.—Virginia bounced back from an upset loss Friday to Wright State to win its last three games over the weekend and remain at No. 1 in the Baseball America Top 25 rankings for the third straight week.

The top four teams in the rankings all stood pat as Virginia and Louisiana State both dominated home tournaments while No. 3 Texas won a tight contest with No. 9 Rice at the Houston College Classic on Friday, part of a 2-1 weekend for the Longhorns. Florida State was the lone team to move up in the top 10, as the Seminoles knocked off Florida in midweek action and swept then-No. 25 Georgia over the weekend. Florida State and Florida flip-flopped the Nos. 5 and 6 rankings.

The Florida State-Georgia series was one of three ACC-SEC matchups over the weekend. The Gators recovered from their midweek loss to go on the road and take two of three at Miami, which fell to No. 20 in the rankings, while Clemson moved up to No. 12 after winning two-of-three from rival South Carolina, which dropped to No. 19. Elsewhere, UCLA continued its hot start by sweeping Nebraska, vaulting the Bruins up four spots in the rankings to No. 15.

Vanderbilt and Oklahoma both made their season debuts in the rankings this week, at Nos. 24 and 25, respectively, after both posted perfect weekends. The Commodores and Sooners replace Cal State Fullerton and Georgia in the rankings. The Titans, No. 4 in the preseason, fell all the way out of the rankings after dropping two-of-three at Arizona last weekend, their third straight losing weekend.

The staff of Baseball America determines the Top 25 rankings. Records indicated are through games of March 7 and do not include ties.

Rk. Team W-L Last Week Prev.
1. Virginia 9-2 3-1 1
2. Louisiana State 11-0 4-0 2
3. Texas 8-3 3-1 3
4. Georgia Tech 10-1 3-0 4
5. Florida State 10-0 4-0 6
6. Florida 7-2 2-2 5
7. Texas Christian 8-2 3-1 7
8. Coastal Carolina 10-1 3-0 8
9. Rice 7-5 4-1 9
10. Louisville 11-0 4-0 10
11. Arizona State 11-0 4-0 12
12. Clemson 9-1 3-1 13
13. East Carolina 7-3 3-0 14
14. Arkansas 8-2 3-1 17
15. UCLA 9-0 3-0 19
16. UC Irvine 6-5 2-2 11
17. North Carolina 10-1 4-0 20
18. Mississippi 9-2 3-1 21
19. South Carolina 6-4 2-2 15
20. Miami 7-3 2-2 16
21. Oregon State 7-3 2-1 22
22. Kentucky 9-1 3-1 23
23. Stanford 7-4 3-1 24
24. Vanderbilt 10-1 4-0 NR
25. Oklahoma 11-1 5-0 NR
Dropped Out: Cal State Fullerton (18), Georgia (25)

March 8, 2010 | Filed Under COLLEGE BASEBALL NEWS, POLLS | Leave a Comment 

NCBWA College Baseball Poll-March 8

Only Slight Movements In This Week’s Rankings

DALLAS - The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association continues
its tradition of NCAA Division I polls for the 13th year with its 2010
weekly surveys. Weekly polls will be circulated from Feb. 22-June 29
following the 64th annual NCAA World Series in Omaha, Neb., and final
CWS competition at historic Rosenblatt Stadium.

The poll voters come from 40 college baseball writers and related media
persons from throughout the nation. This week’s poll has representation
by 10 different conferences among the 302 baseball-playing schools in
the 2010 NCAA Division I ranks, and there have been 12 circuits in the
surveys this season. Last year there were 17 different leagues (from 30
in NCAA Division I) among the Top 30 polls. For more information or to
join the NCBWA, please go to www.ncbwa.com< target=_blank href=”http://www.ncbwa.com/”>http://www.ncbwa.com/>.

Rank School Conference Overall Record Previous Rank
1 LSU Southeastern 11-0 1
2 Florida State Atlantic Coast 10-0 3
3 Arizona State Pacific-10 11-0 4
4 Virginia ACC 9-2 2
5 Georgia Tech ACC 10-1 7
6 Texas Big 12 8-3 6
7 Florida SEC 7-2 5
8 TCU Mountain West 8-2 8
9 Clemson ACC 9-1 9
10 Louisville Big East 11-0 11
11 North Carolina ACC 10-1 12
12 Coastal Carolina Big South 10-1 13
13 Miami (Fla.) 7-3 10
14 Arkansas SEC 8-2 15
15 Rice Conference USA 7-5 16
16 UCLA Pac-10 9-0 20
17 East Carolina C-USA 7-3 19
18 Oregon State Pac-10 7-3 18
19 Oklahoma Big 12 11-1 22
20 Mississippi SEC 9-2 21
21 Vanderbilt SEC 10-1 25
22 UC Irvine Big West 6-5 14
23 Ohio State Big Ten 8-2 23
24 Kentucky SEC 9-1 27
25 Stanford Pac-10 7-4 26
26 Cal State Fullerton Big West 4-6 17
27 Alabama SEC 8-1 28
28 South Carolina SEC 6-4 24
29 Texas A&M Big 12 9-2 NR
30 NC State ACC 10-1 NR

Others receiving votes (listed alphabetically):

Appalachian State
(9-0), Auburn (9-2), Belmont (10-1),
College of Charleston (9-3), Connecticut (5-1), East Tennessee State
(8-2), Florida (8-2), Georgia (6-6),
Houston (5-5), Kansas (7-3), Kansas State (9-2), Lamar (9-2), Liberty
(9-0), Mississippi State (8-3),
New Mexico (8-4), Oregon (9-5), Southeastern Louisiana (11-1), Southern
Mississippi (7-4), St. John’s (7-2),
Washington State (9-1), Western Carolina (8-2), Western Kentucky (8-3),
Wichita State (7-1).

Dropped Out: Georgia (29), St. John’s (30).

By conference: SEC 8, ACC 7, Pac-10 4, Big 12 3, Big West 2, C-USA 2,
Big East 1, Big South 1, Big Ten 1, MWC 1.

March 8, 2010 | Filed Under COLLEGE BASEBALL NEWS, POLLS | Leave a Comment 

Collegiate Baseball Poll-March 8

LSU Has Another Top National Ranking

TUCSON, Ariz.– Defending national champion Louisiana St. is ranked No. 1 for the third straight time in Collegiate Baseball newspaper’s NCAA Division I baseball poll.

The Tigers (11-0) posted two wins over Pepperdine and two wins over Brown at home last week. LSU is 11-0 for the first time since 1997 when the Tigers won their first 19 games of the season en route to the school’s fourth national championship. LSU has won 17 straight home games dating back to last season.

Poll Notes: Several other schools have been red hot. Second ranked Arizona St. is 11-0 while third ranked Florida St. is unbeaten at 10-0 after sweeping a 3-game series at home against Georgia. Two other unbeaten teams are Louisville (11-0, best start since 1957 when the Cardinals went 15-0) and UCLA (9-0, best start since 1955). Coastal Carolina (10-1) has won eight straight while Oklahoma (11-1) has captured six in a row. Two teams fell out of the top 30 in Western Kentucky (3-2 last week) and U.C. Irvine (2-2). New to the poll this week is N.C. State (10-1) and Alabama (8-1).

The Collegiate Baseball newspaper poll is the oldest college baseball poll. Its birth took place during the 1957 college baseball season.

(Top 30 Agate Follows)

Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s
NCAA Div. I Poll (As of March 8, 2010)
www.baseballnews.com
Rank School (Record) Points Previous
1. Louisiana St. (11-0) 493 1
2. Arizona St. (11-0) 491 2
3. Florida St. (10-0) 489 6
4. Virginia (9-2) 488 3
5. Georgia Tech. (10-1) 486 5
6. Texas (8-3) 484 4
7. Coastal Carolina (10-1) 481 8
8. Louisville (11-0) 478 13
9. Florida (7-2) 477 7
10. UCLA (9-0) 475 14
11. Texas Christian (8-2) 473 9
12. Oregon St. (7-3) 472 10
13. Clemson (9-1) 469 12
14. North Carolina (10-1) 468 15
15. Miami, Fla. (7-3) 466 11
16. Oklahoma (11-1) 464 17
17. Ohio St. (8-2) 462 16
18. Mississippi (9-2) 460 18
19. Arkansas (8-2) 458 19
20. East Carolina (7-3) 455 21
21. Wichita St. (7-1) 452 24
22. New Mexico (8-4) 449 20
23. South Carolina (6-4) 448 22
24. Kentucky (9-1) 445 25
25. Washington St. (9-1) 440 28
26. S.E. Louisiana (11-1) 438 29
27. Vanderbilt (10-1) 436 30
28. N.C. State (10-1) 433 �
29. Stanford (7-4) 432 27
30. Alabama (8-1) 429 �

March 8, 2010 | Filed Under COLLEGE BASEBALL NEWS, POLLS | Leave a Comment 

CB360 Composite National Rankings #3 – March 3

The first full week of play in the 2010 college baseball season resulted in some drastic polls movement for certain teams, in the CollegeBaseball360.com Composite National Rankings (CNR). Eleven teams fell out of the CNR top-50 entirely, while there are two new teams in the top-10 and several traditional “power conferences” have been knocked off their stride.

#1 LSU and #7 Georgia Tech retained their same spots in the CNR top-10, while current #2 Virginia and #3 Texas swapped spots. Current #4 Florida State and #8 TCU both bumped up two spots while new #5 Florida and #6 Arizona State both moved up three positions. Coastal Carolina (#18 to #10) has charged into the top-10, as has #9 Clemson (up from #9) – with a pair of Big West teams tumbling outside the top-10: Cal State Fullerton (#4 to #23) and UC Irvine (#5 to #13). Nearly half of the teams in the CNR top-10 (4) are from the ACC.

(Note – scroll to end of this release for detailed description of the CNR).

In additional to Coastal, other teams making big moves up the CNR ladder include Georgia (#35 to #22), Kentucky (#32 to #22) and UCLA (#24 to #17). Those taking the biggest tumple (along with CSF and UCI) include: Southern Mississippi (#26 to #44), San Diego (#22 to #37), Oregon (#30 to #40) and Texas A&M (#29 to #38) .

Jacksonville (#41) has returned to the CNR top-50, while 10 others are newcomers to the top-50: #34 St. John’s, #35 Washington St., #36 Southeast Louisiana, #39 North Carolina St.,  #42 Florida International, #44 California , #48 Alabama Birmingham, #49 Liberty and co-#50s College of Charleston  and Winthrop.

It was a rough week for the Big West’s top teams, as CSF and UCI dropped significantly while Long Beach St. (#36) and Cal Poly (#40) both exited the CNR top-50. The West Coast Conference also saw two of its teams (#37 Pepperdine and #47 Gonzaga) fall out of the CNR top-50, while four different Big Ten teams slid out of the CB360 composite rankings: #38 Missouri, #42 Oklahoma St., #44 Nebraska and #45 Kansas St. The other teams that have dropped out of the CNR top-50 include #41 Arizona, #43 Minnesota and #46 Oral Roberts.

CNR Contact: Pete LaFleur (pete@collegebaseball360.com)

The updated CNR top-50 – encompassing five national polls and a projected strength of schedule – is listed below. Next week’s CNR will drop the projected strength-of-schedule factor while adding various RPI factors and possible bonuses for preseason conference poll standing (when comparing teams in close proximity in the CNR).

The 16 conferences represented in the CNR are led by the Southeastern Conference with nine teams in the top-50 (two top-10; six top-25): #1 LSU, #5 Florida, #14 Arkansas, #19 South Carolina, #20 Mississippi, #22 Kentucky, #27 Georgia, #28 Vanderbilt and #33 Alabama. There also are seven from the Atlantic Coast Conference (four top-10, six top-15) – #2 Virginia, #4 Florida State, #7 Georgia Tech, #9 Clemson, #12 Miami, #15 North Carolina and #39 N.C. State) and seven more from the Pacific-10 (one top-10; four top-25): #6 Arizona State, #16 Oregon State, #17 UCLA, #25 Stanford, #35 Washington St., #40 Oregon and #44 California. The Big 12 had eight teams in the previous week’s CNR top-50, now down to four (only one in top-25) – #3 Texas, #26 Oklahoma, #29 Kansas and #38 Texas A&M.

More than half of the teams (27 of 50) in the CNR top-50 come from the SEC, Big 12, ACC and Pac-10. Five other leagues also have multiple teams in the CNR top-50, led by four from Conference USA (#18 East Carolina, #21 Rice, #44 Southern Mississippi, #48 UAB) and three each from the Big South (#10 Coastal Carolina, #49 Liberty and #50 Winthrop) and the Sunbelt: #32 Western Kentucky and co-#42s Middle Tennessee & Florida International.

The Big West Conference (#13 UC Irvine and #23 Cal State Fullerton), Mountain West (#8 TCU, #31 New Mexico), BIG EAST (#11 Louisville & #34 St. John’s) and Atlantic Sun (#41 Jacksonville & #44 Florida Gulf Coast)  each have two teams in the top-50.

Six conferences have single representatives in the CNR top-50: the West Coast Conference (#37 San Diego), Big Ten (#24 Ohio State), Missouri Valley (#30 Wichita State), Western Athletic (#44 Fresno State), Southland (#36 Southeast Louisiana) and Southern Conference (#50 College of Charleston).

College Baseball 2010 Composite National Rankings (CNR)

(courtesy of CollegeBaseball360.com; #3; March 3)

1. LSU – 97.67  (1st in previous poll … 2nd in preseason CNR)
2. Virginia – 95.98  (3 … 4)
3. Texas – 94.87  (2 … 1)
4. Florida State – 93.90  (6 … 7)
5. Florida – 93.69  (8 … 9)
6. Arizona State – 93.41  (9 … 10)
7. Georgia Tech – 92.76  (7 … 8 )
8. TCU – 88.18  (10 … 11)
9. Clemson – 87.40  (11 … 12)
10. Coastal Carolina – 86.69  (18 … 18)
11. Louisville – 86.34  (14 … 19)
12. Miami (FL) – 84.06  (13 … 14)
13. UC Irvine – 83.26  (5 … 5)
14. Arkansas  – 82.66  (16 … 15)
15. North Carolina – 81.77  (12 … 13)
16. Oregon State – 81.49  (15 … 16)
17. UCLA – 81.10  (24 … 25)
18. East Carolina – 79.91  (21 … 17)
19. South Carolina – 78.36  (19 … 20)
20. Mississippi – 77.67  (23 … 22)
21. Rice – 74.43  (17 … 6)
22. Kentucky – 74.00  (32 … 38)
23. Cal State Fullerton – 73.70  (4 … 3)
24. Ohio State – 67.92  (25 … 24)
25. Stanford – 67.19  (20 … 29)
26. Oklahoma – 61.35  (28 … 28)
27. Georgia – 57.56  (35 … 23)
28. Vanderbilt – 57.17  (33 … 31)
29. Kansas – 50.03  (27 … 27)
30. Wichita State – 49.83  (34 … 32)
31. New Mexico – 49.76  (31 … –)
32. Western Kentucky – 49.37  (– … –)
33. Alabama – 49.19  (39 … 34)
34. St. John’s – 48.11  (– … –)
35. Washington State – 47.85  (– … –)
36. Southeast Louisiana – 45.70  (– … –)
37. San Diego – 45.32  (22 … 21)
38. Texas A&M – 44.57  (29 … 30)
39. North Carolina St. – 42.17  (– … –)
40. Oregon – 41.53  (30 … –)
41. Jacksonville – 41.28  (– … –)
42. Middle Tennessee – 40.73  (48 … 46)
42. Florida International – 40.73  (– … –)
44. Florida Gulf Coast – 40.28  (50 … 48)
44. California – 40.28  (– … –)
44. Fresno State – 40.28  (49 … 47)
44. Southern Mississippi – 40.28  (26 … 26)
48. Alabama Birmingham – 39.83  (– … –)
49. Liberty  – 39.68(– … –)
50. College of Charleston – 39.30  (– … –)
50. Winthrop – 39.30  (– … –)

Dropped out of top-50: #36 Long Beach St., #37 Pepperdine, #38 Missouri, #40 Cal Poly, #41 Arizona, #42 Oklahoma St., #43 Minnesota, #44 Nebraska, #45 Kansas St., #46 Oral Roberts and #47 Gonzaga

COMPOSITE NATIONAL RANKINGS (CNR) CRITERIA
CB360’s 100-point CNR scale currently is centered around five national polls – USA Today/ESPN (coaches poll), NCBWA (writers), Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, and Rivals – and teams receive points based on their standings in each poll (60 pts for #1, 59 for #2, etc.). For polls involving voting points (coaches and CB), 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).

The five CNR totals from the national polls are averaged (max. of 60) and 37 is added to each total. Finally, the Boyd’s World projected strength-of-schedule bonus is added (max of 3 CNR pts) to produce the 100-point scale.

The CNR top-50 combines several groups of “experts” to provide a projection of the 2010 NCAA Championship field (hypothetically 50 teams, plus 14 others from lower-rated automatic-bid conferences – those teams will be projected in upcoming CNR updates). Later in the season, other factors – such as various power rankings, NCAA-field predictions and last-10-games records – will be included in the CNR formula.

March 3, 2010 | Filed Under COLLEGE BASEBALL NEWS, Composite National Rankings, POLLS | Comments Off 

Baseball America College Baseball Poll-March 1

Virginia Stays #1 In Latest BA Rankings

DURHAM, N.C.—Virginia dominated Rhode Island over the weekend to stay at No. 1 in the new Baseball America Top 25 rankings for the second week in a row.

The top three teams in the rankings all posted 4-0 weeks, most notably with Texas righting the ship after its stunning series loss to New Mexico on opening weekend. The Longhorns swept visiting Stanford, which dropped to No. 24. Texas Christian and Coastal Carolina both moved into the Top 10, at Nos. 7 and 8, thanks to wins against ranked West Coast opponents. The Horned Frogs took two of three on the road at Cal State Fullerton, while the Chanticleers swept a doubleheader from UC Irvine as part of the Baseball at the Beach tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

East Carolina was involved in one of the weekend’s showcase series for the second week in a row. After dropping a series at home to No. 1 Virginia on opening weekend, the Pirates bounced back to take two of three from South Carolina, earning themselves the No. 14 ranking while the Gamecocks dropped behind them at No. 15.

A pair of Southeastern Conference clubs moved into the rankings this week. Kentucky has gotten off to a hot start and swept Bowling Green State last weekend to make its season debut in the rankings at No. 23. Meanwhile, Georgia, who was No. 22 in the preseason, returned to the rankings at No. 25 thanks to a sweep of Stetson.

The staff of Baseball America determines the Top 25 rankings. Records indicated are through games of February 28 and do not include ties.

Rk. Team W-L Last Week Prev.
1. Virginia 6-1 4-0 1
2. Louisiana State 7-0 4-0 2
3. Texas 5-2 4-0 3
4. Georgia Tech 7-1 4-1 4
5. Florida 5-0 2-0 5
6. Florida State 6-0 3-0 7
7. Texas Christian 5-1 2-1 11
8. Coastal Carolina 7-1 5-0 12
9. Rice 3-4 3-1 9
10. Louisville 7-0 4-0 13
11. UC Irvine 4-3 1-3 6
12. Arizona State 7-0 4-0 14
13. Clemson 6-0 3-0 15
14. East Carolina 4-3 3-1 22
15. South Carolina 4-2 1-2 10
16. Miami 5-1 2-1 16
17. Arkansas 5-1 3-0 17
18. Cal State Fullerton 2-4 1-2 8
19. UCLA 6-0 3-0 23
20. North Carolina 6-1 3-1 20
21. Mississippi 6-1 4-0 24
22. Oregon State 5-2 3-1 25
23. Kentucky 6-0 3-0 NR
24. Stanford 4-3 1-3 18
25. Georgia 6-2 4-0 NR
Dropped Out: San Diego (19), Southern Mississippi (21)

March 2, 2010 | Filed Under COLLEGE BASEBALL NEWS, POLLS | Leave a Comment 

NCBWA College Baseball Poll-March 1

LSU #1 In Another Poll This Week

DALLAS - The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association continues
its tradition of NCAA Division I polls for the 13th year with its 2010
weekly surveys. Weekly polls will be circulated from Feb. 22-June 29
following the 64th annual NCAA World Series in Omaha, Neb., and final
CWS competition at historic Rosenblatt Stadium.

The poll voters come from 40 college baseball writers and related media
persons from throughout the nation. This week’s poll has representation
by 10 different conferences among the 302 baseball-playing schools in
the 2010 NCAA Division I ranks, and there have been 12 circuits in the
initial surveys this season. Last year there were 17 different leagues
(from 30 in NCAA Division I) among the Top 30 polls.

Rank School Conference Overall Record Previous Rank
1 LSU Southeastern 7-0 1
2 Virginia Atlantic Coast 6-1 3
3 Florida State ACC 6-0 2
4 Arizona State Pacific-10 7-0 6
5 Florida SEC 5-0 7
6 Texas Big 12 5-2 8
7 Georgia Tech ACC 7-1 5
8 TCU Mountain West 5-1 9
9 Clemson ACC 6-0 13
10 Miami (Fla.) ACC 5-1 10
11 Louisville Big East 7-0 15
12 North Carolina ACC 6-1 12
13 Coastal Carolina Big South 7-1 19
14 UC Irvine Big West 4-3 4
15 Arkansas SEC 5-1 16
16 Rice Conference USA 3-4 14
17 Cal State Fullerton Big West 2-4 11
18 Oregon State Pac-10 5-2 20
19 East Carolina CUSA 4-3 21
20 UCLA Pac-10 6-0 27
21 Mississippi SEC 6-1 24
22 Oklahoma Big 12 6-1 22
23 Ohio State Big Ten 5-1 23
24 South Carolina SEC 4-2 18
25 Vanderbilt SEC 6-1 30
26 Stanford Pac-10 4-3 17
27 Kentucky SEC 6-0 29
28 Alabama SEC 5-0 NR
29 Georgia SEC 6-2 NR
30 St. John’s Big East 6-0 NR

Others receiving votes (listed alphabetically): Appalachian State
(6-0), Arkansas State (6-1), Army (2-1), Belmont (6-0), Dallas Baptist
(6-1), East Tennessee State (6-1), Florida Gulf Coast (6-1), Florida
International (6-0), Fresno State (5-2), Kansas (4-1), Lamar (6-1),
Middle Tennessee State (4-1), NC State (6-1), New Mexico (5-2), San
Diego (4-4), Southeastern Louisiana (7-0), Southern Miss (4-3),
Tennessee (4-2), Texas A&M (5-2), Texas Tech (6-2), Washington State
(6-0), Western Kentucky (5-1), Wichita State (3-0), Winthrop (7-0)
.

Dropped Out: San Diego (25), Southern Miss (26), Texas A&M (28).

By conference: SEC 9, ACC 6, Pac-10 4, Big 12 2, Big East 2, Big West 2,
C-USA 2, Big South 1, Big Ten 1, MWC 1.

March 1, 2010 | Filed Under COLLEGE BASEBALL NEWS, POLLS | Leave a Comment 

USA TODAY/ESPN College Baseball Coaches’ Poll-March 1

LSU Tops Most Recent Coaches’ Tally

March 1, 2010


Rank
 School (first-place votes)
Record
Points
Preseason ranking
1
 LSU
7-0
760
2
2
 Virginia
6-1
712
4
3
 Florida State
6-0
691
5
4
 Arizona State
7-0
651
8
5
 Texas
5-2
615
1
6
 Florida
5-0
591
9
7
 Georgia Tech
7-1
574
10
8
 TCU
5-1
502
12
9
 Clemson
6-0
443
15
10
 Coastal Carolina
7-1
420
19
11
 Miami (Fla.)
5-1
408
13
12
 North Carolina
6-1
393
11
13
 Louisville
7-0
387
20
14
 Cal State-Fullerton
2-4
299
3
15
 Oregon State
5-2
291
14
16
 UC-Irvine
4-3
283
7
17
 Arkansas
5-1
266
16
18
 UCLA
6-0
222
NR
19
 Mississippi
6-1
199
17
20
 Rice
3-4
189
6
21
 East Carolina
4-3
171
18
22
 Oklahoma
6-1
161
22
23
 South Carolina
4-2
149
NR
24
 Stanford
4-3
127
25
25
 Ohio State
5-1
117
21

Dropped out: No. 23 San Diego (4-4), No. 24 Southern Mississippi (4-3).

Others receiving votes: Vanderbilt 115; Kentucky 77; San Diego 45; Wichita State 37; North Carolina State 31; Texas A&M 31; St. John’s 19; Western Kentucky 16; Georgia 15; New Mexico 15; Jacksonville 10; Alabama 8; Kansas 6; Florida International 4; Middle Tennessee 4; California 3; Florida Gulf Coast 3; Fresno State 3; Southern Mississippi 3; UAB 2; Liberty 2; College of Charleston 1; Oregon 1; Southeastern Louisiana 1; Washington State 1; Winthrop 1.

The 2010 board: 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 2010 season: Terry Alexander, Jacksonville; John Anderson, Minnesota; Ed Blankmeyer, St. John’s; Rob Cooper, Wright State; Sherman Corbett, Texas-San Antonio; Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt; David Eldredge, Southern Utah; Mike Gaski, North Carolina-Greensboro; Nino Giarratano, San Francisco; Gary Gilmore, Coastal Carolina; Keith Guttin, Missouri State; Danny Hall, Georgia Tech; Daniel Heefner, Dallas Baptist; Loren Hibbs, Charlotte; Charlie Hickey, Central Connecticut State; George Horton, Oregon; Steve Jaksa, Central Michigan; Omar Johnson, Jackson State; Rick Jones, Tulane; Steve Kittrell, South Alabama; Paul Kostacopoulos, Navy; Kevin Leighton, Manhattan; Gary McClure, Austin Peay; Mervyl Melendez, Bethune-Cookman; Gary Powers, Nevada; Mark Scalf, North Carolina-Wilmington; Jim Schlossnagle, TCU; Matt Senk, Stony Brook; Doug Smith, UC-Riverside; Steve Smith, Baylor; Bob Whalen, Dartmouth.

March 1, 2010 | Filed Under COLLEGE BASEBALL NEWS, POLLS | Leave a Comment 

College Baseball Composite Rankings – Feb. 24

LSU has moved atop the CollegeBaseball360.com Composite National Rankings (CNR), flipping spots with current #2 Texas, following opening-week action in the 2010 college baseball season. Current #3 Virginia and #4 Cal State Fullerton also swapped spots while UC Irvine remained #5 and four other teams (current #6 Florida St., #7 Georgia Tech, #8 Florida and #9 Arizona St.) each moved up one spot from the preseason CNR. TCU is the new team in the top-10, moving up from 11th to 10th – while Rice dropped from 6th to 17th after getting swept at Stanford.

CNR Contact: Pete LaFleur (pete@collegebaseball360.com)

The updated CNR top-50 – encompassing five national polls and a projected strength of schedule – is listed below. Please note that it appears the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll has not been updated since the preseason poll. Next week’s CNR will drop the projected strength-of-schedule factor while adding possible bonuses for preseason conference poll standing (when comparing teams in close proximity in the CNR).

Oregon (#30) and New Mexico (#31) have joined the CNR top-50, with Boston College and Jacksonville slipping out of the CNR.  Stanford (#29 to #20) and Louisville (#19 to #14) made the biggest jumps in the CNR, with the biggest drops coming from (in addition to Rice): Georgia (#23 to #35), Minnesota (#33 to #43), Kansas State (#36 to #45) and Alabama (#34 to #39).

The 100-point CNR scale currently is based on five national polls – USA Today/ESPN (coaches poll), NCBWA (writers), Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, and Rivals – and teams receive points based on their standings in each poll (60 pts for #1, 59 for #2, etc.). For polls involving voting points (coaches and CB), 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).

The five CNR totals from the national polls are averaged (max. of 60) and 37 is added to each total. Finally, a projected strength-of-schedule bonus is added (max of 3 CNR pts) to produce the 100-point scale.

The CNR top-50 combines several groups of “experts” to provide a preseason projection of the 2010 NCAA Championship field (hypothetically 50 teams, plus 14 others from lower-rated automatic-bid conferences – those teams will be projected in next week’s CNR). Later in the season, other factors – such as various power rankings, NCAA-field predictions and last-10-games records – will be included in the CNR formula.

The 16 conferences represented in the CNR are led by the Southeastern Conference with nine teams in the top-50 (two top-10; five top-25): #1 LSU, #8 Florida, #16 Arkansas, #19 South Carolina, #23 Mississippi, #32 Kentucky, #33 Vanderbilt, #35 Georgia and #39 Alabama. There also are eight from the Big 12 Conference (only one in top-25) – #2 Texas, #27 Kansas, #28 Oklahoma, #29 Texas A&M, #38 Missouri, #42 Oklahoam State, #44 Nebraska and #45 Kansas State – along with six from both the Atlantic Coast Conference (all in top-13; three top-10: #3 Virginia, #6 Florida State, #7 Georgia Tech, #11 Clemson, #12 North Carolina and #13 Miami) and six more from the Pacific 10 (four top-25): #9 Arizona State, #15 Oregon State, #20 Stanford, #24 UCLA, #30 Oregon and #41 Arizona.

Nearly 60%of the teams (29 of 50) in the CNR top-50 come from the SEC, Big 12, ACC and pac-10, followed by two west-coast leagues: four Big West Conference teams (#4 Cal State Fullerton, #5 UC Irvine, #36 Long Beach State and #40 Cal Poly) and the West Coast Conference trio of #22 San Diego, #37 Pepperdine and #47 Gonzaga).

Three other leagues have multiple teams in the CNR: Conference USA (#17 Rice, #21 East Carolina, #26 Southern Mississippi), the Big Ten (#25 Ohio State,#43 Minnesota, ) and the Mountain West (#10 TCU, #31 New Mexico). Seven conferences have single representatives in the CNR top-50: the BIG EAST (#14 Louisville), Big South (#18 Coastal Carolina), Missouri Valley (#34 Wichita State), the Summit League (#46 Oral Roberts), Sunbelt (#48 Middle Tennessee), Western Athletic (#49 Fresno State) and Atlantic Sun (#50 Florida Gulf Coast).

College Baseball 2010 Composite National Rankings (CNR)

(courtesy of CollegeBaseball360.com; #2; Feb. 24)
1. LSU – 96.11  (2)
2. Texas – 98.50  (1)
3. Virginia – 94.04  (4)
4. Cal State Fullerton – 95.14  (3)
5. UC Irvine – 89.68  (5)
6. Florida State – 88.89  (7)
7. Georgia Tech – 88.17  (8)
8. Florida – 87.94  (9)
9. Arizona State – 87.66  (10)
10. TCU – 80.50  (11)
11. Clemson – 80.16  (12)
12. North Carolina – 79.57  (13)
13. Miami (FL) – 79.34  (14)
14. Louisville – 76.05  (19)
15. Oregon State – 77.90  (16)
16. Arkansas  – 78.17  (15)
17. Rice – 89.33  (6)
18. Coastal Carolina – 76.43  (18)
19. South Carolina – 72.92  (20)
20. Stanford – 53.75  (29)
21. East Carolina – 76.51  (17)
22. San Diego – 72.83  (21)
23. Mississippi – 72.68  (22)
24. UCLA – 63.43  (25)
25. Ohio State – 63.79  (24)
26. Southern Mississippi – 61.94  (26)
27. Kansas – 56.78  (27)
28. Oklahoma – 54.04  (28)
29. Texas A&M – 52.96  (30)
30. Oregon – 46.36  (–)
31. New Mexico – 45.30  (–)
32. Kentucky – 38.79  (38)
33. Vanderbilt – 50.75  (31)
34. Wichita State – 49.83  (32)
35. Georgia – 68.34  (23)
36. Long Beach State – 39.54  (37)
37. Pepperdine – 44.36  (35)
38. Missouri – 38.73  (39)
39. Alabama – 44.37  (34)
40. Cal Poly – 38.02  (40)
41. Arizona – 37.97  (41)
42. Oklahoma State – 37.88  (42)
43. Minnesota – 48.92  (33)
44. Nebraska – 37.44  (43)
45. Kansas State – 42.79  (36)
46. Oral Roberts – 37.27  (44)
47. Gonzaga – 37.27  (44)
48. Middle Tennessee – 37.20  (46)
49. Fresno State – 37.14  (47)
50. Florida Gulf Coast – 37.08  (48)

Dropped out of top-50: #48 Boston College and #50 Jacksonville

February 24, 2010 | Filed Under COLLEGE BASEBALL NEWS, Composite National Rankings, POLLS | Leave a Comment 

Baseball America Feb. 22 College Baseball Poll

Virginia Is Number One For The First Time

Virginia took two out of three on the road against East Carolina in the marquee series of college baseball’s opening weekend and moved up to No. 1 in the Baseball America Top 25 rankings for the first time ever.

While Virginia, which ranked second in the preseason, was winning on the road in a tough environment at then-No. 18 East Carolina, its path to the top of the rankings was cleared when preseason No. 1 Texas was upset at home by New Mexico. The Longhorns won the opener but dropped the next two games and fell to No. 3 in the rankings, with Louisiana State moving to No. 2 after sweeping Centenary.

Texas wasn’t the only top 10 team upset on opening weekend. Preseason No. 4 Cal State Fullerton lost its first two games to Oregon and Pepperdine before salvaging the finale with a win against rival Long Beach State. Meanwhile, Rice went on the road to Stanford and was swept in a three-game series, the first time that’s happened to the Owls in five years. Fullerton and Rice fell to No. 8 and No. 9, respectively.

Since most of the preseason Top 25 teams opened the season with series wins against lesser opponents, there wasn’t a lot of movement throughout the rankings. Stanford, thanks to sweeping Rice, was the only team to join the rankings this week, jumping in at No. 18. Georgia fell out of the rankings after a 2-2 weekend.

Rk. Team W-L Last Week Prev.
1. Virginia 2-1 2-1 2
2. Louisiana State 3-0 3-0 3
3. Texas 1-2 1-2 1
4. Georgia Tech 3-0 3-0 6
5. Florida 3-0 3-0 7
6. UC Irvine 3-0 3-0 8
7. Florida State 3-0 3-0 9
8. Cal State Fullerton 1-2 1-2 4
9. Rice 0-3 0-3 5
10. South Carolina 3-0 3-0 10
11. Texas Christian 3-0 3-0 11
12. Coastal Carolina 2-1 2-1 12
13. Louisville 3-0 3-0 13
14. Arizona State 3-0 3-0 14
15. Clemson 3-0 3-0 15
16. Miami 3-0 3-0 16
17. Arkansas 2-1 2-1 17
18. Stanford 3-0 3-0 NR
19. San Diego 3-1 3-1 19
20. North Carolina 3-0 3-0 20
21. Southern Mississippi 2-1 2-1 21
22. East Carolina 1-2 1-2 18
23. UCLA 3-0 3-0 23
24. Mississippi 2-1 2-1 24
25. Oregon State 2-1 2-1 25
Dropped Out: Georgia (22)

(BA Release)

February 22, 2010 | Filed Under COLLEGE BASEBALL NEWS, POLLS | Leave a Comment 

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