Sun Devils maintain CNR’s top spot for 7th straight week; some movement in top-10, but still same 10 teams …
Arizona State has maintained the top spot in CB360’s exclusive Compositional National Rankings (click on link for CNR archive) for nearly two months, as ASU now has owned the CNR’s #1 position in each of the past seven weeks. Texas remains #2 and Virginia #3, while two teams – current #4 Florida and #6 Louisville – each have jumped three spots up in the top-10.
Coastal Carolina has inched up a spot t0 #5 in the CNR, with the others in the top-10 still including: Arkansas (slid from #5 to #7) … UCLA (dropped from #4 to #8) … Florida State (up from #10 to #9) … and Georgia Tech (#8 to #10). (front-page photo courtesy of Auburn)
The CNR’s all-inclusive ranking formula currently includes 15 different “ingredients:” six national polls (coaches, writers, BA, CB, Rivals, & Ping), five RPI-type calcuations (NCAA RPI, Boyds World Pseudo-RPI & ISR, W-Nolan RPI & NRPI) and four NCAA Tournament field projections (BA, SE-Baseball, Rivals and new addition ESPN.com bracketology).
ASU has a lofty total of 99.14 points in the CNR’s 100-point scale, with the Sun Devils currently listed #1 in all five of the RPI-type calculations – in addition to being the #1 national seed in 3-of-4 NCAA field projections (#2 in ESPN.com’s projection). ASU ranges from 2nd-4th in all six of the polls: #2 in the coaches, Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball polls; #3 according to the writers and Rivals; and #4 in the Ping rankings.
The CNR top-50 includes nine teams from the Southeastern Conference, with seven in the top-25 (including #18 Auburn, while made the biggest move up the poll of any team – after sitting in the 26th spot a week ago).
(Note – scroll to end of this release for detailed description of the CNR, including direct links to all 14 criteria).
CNR Contact: Pete LaFleur (pete@collegebaseball360.com)
CNR TOP-50 CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN (May 5)
SEC (9 … 2 top-10, 7 top-25) – #4 Florida, #7 Arkansas, #11 South Carolina, #15 Mississippi, #16 LSU, #18 Auburn, #25 Vanderbilt, #29 Alabama & #44 Kentucky
Pacific-10 (8 … 2 top-10, 5 top-25) – #1 Arizona St., #8 UCLA, #19 Oregon, #21 Arizona, #24 California, #35 Stanford, #47 Oregon St. & #50 Washington
ACC (7 … 3 top-10, 6 top-25) – #3 Virginia, #9 Florida St., #10 Georgia Tech, #13 Miami, #22 Virginia Tech, #25 Clemson & #38 North Carolina
Big 12 (5 … 1 top-10, 2 top-25) – #2 Texas, #17 Oklahoma, #37 Kansas St., #40 Texas A&M, #42 Texas Tech
BIG EAST (3) – #6 Louisville, #19 Connecticut & #31 Pittsburgh
Southern (3) – #33 College of Charleston, #39 Citadel & #44 Appalachian St.
Sunbelt (3) – #34 Western Kentucky, #36 Florida Atlantic & #49 Louisiana-Lafayette
2 Each – Big South (#4 Coastal Carolina & #41 Liberty) … Big West (#14 Cal State Fullerton & #28 UC Irvine) … Mountain West (#12 TCU & #32 New Mexico) … Southland (#30 Texas St. & #46 SE Louisiana) … West Coast (#27 San Diego & #43 Portland)
1 Each – Conference USA (#23 Rice) … Western Athletic (#48 New Mexico St.)
BIGGEST JUMPS IN THE CNR – Auburn (#26 to #18) … Florida Atlantic (#43 to #36) … San Diego (#33 to #27) … … Liberty (#47 to #41) … Texas St. (#35 to #30) … College of Charleston (#38 to #33)
BIGGEST DROPS IN THE CNR – Oregon State (#29 to #47) … Stanford (#22 to #35) … Western Kentucky (#28 to #34) … Kansas St. (#31 to #37) … Arizona (#16 to #21)
RETURNERS TO THE CNR – #49 Louisiana-Lafayette & #50 Washington
DROPPED OUT OF THE CNR TOP-50 – #48 Kansas & #49 Western Carolina
College Baseball 2010 Composite National Rankings #11 (CNR)
courtesy of CollegeBaseball360.com; May 5, 2010
(parentheses indicate previous CNR spots … final number is preseason)
1. Arizona State – 99.14 (1…1…1…1…1…1…3…6…6…9…10)
2. Texas – 97.25 (2…2…5…8…10…10…4…3…3…2…1)
3. Virginia – 95.41 (3…3…3…3…3…2…1…2…2…3…4)
4. Florida – 94.66 (7…9…7…9…9…6…11…10…5…8…9)
5. Coastal Carolina – 93.00 (6…8…9…13…13…11…14…5…10…18…18)
6. Louisville – 92.55 (9…10…11…5…7…8…8…7…11…14…19)
7. Arkansas – 90.63 (5…4…4…6…8…18…13…16…14…16…15)
8. UCLA – 89.92 (4…6…2…2…2…3…2…8…17…24…25)
9. Florida State – 89.90 (10…13…8…10…4…5…7…4…4…6…7)
10. Georgia Tech – 89.56 (8…5…6…4…5…14…12…17…7…7…8)
11. South Carolina – 89.48 (12..12..12..15..19..20..27..24..19..19..20)
12. TCU – 88.68 (11…14…13…17…14…13…9…13…8…10…11)
13. Miami (FL) – 87.57 (14…11…15…14…17…17…20…21…12…13…14)
14. Cal St. Fullerton – 86.22 (15..15..17..23..30..26..36..42..23..4..3)
15. Mississippi – 84.86 (17…22…20…16…12…15…18…18…20…23…22)
16. LSU – 81.83 (13…7…10…7…6…7…6…1…1…1…2)
17. Oklahoma – 79.25 (19…21…19…20…16…16…15…20…26…28…28)
18. Auburn – 77.52 (26…28…24…36…31…33…x…49…x…x…x)
19. Connecticut – 77.22 (18…23…30…39…38…47…38…x…x…x…x)
20. Oregon – 76.03 (20…20…31…34…34…44…45…45…40…30…x)
21. Arizona – 75.86 (16…16…23…25…21…25…x…x…x…41…41)
22. Virginia Tech – 75.38 (23…30…25…43…x…x…x…48…x…x…x)
23. Rice – 74.65 (21…27…28…30…43…24…22…23…21…17…6)
24. California – 73.10 (25…18…22…31…x…x…x…44…x…x…x)
25. Clemson – 69.16 (27…19…16…12…11…4…5…9…9…11…12)
25. Vanderbilt – 69.16 (24…17…21…18…18…19…17…15…28…33…31)
27. San Diego – 65.91 (33…40…46…49…x…x…x…x…37…22…21)
28. UC Irvine – 62.82 (30…38…33…21…28…26…31…28…13…5…5)
29. Alabama – 60.33 (32…35…26…22…25…12…21…25…33…39…34)
30. Texas State – 60.25 (35…45…37…42…39…x…47…x…x…x…x)
31. Pittsburgh – 59.73 (34…36…43…x…35…x…x…x…x…x…x)
32. New Mexico – 59.27 (36…32…34…37…42…36…29…32…31…31…x)
33. Coll. of Charleston – 58.41 (38..39..39..28..33..30..x..47..50..x..x)
34. Western Kentucky – 58.15 (28..25..18..19..20..28..37..41..32..x..x)
35. Stanford – 58.01 (22…29…45…24…23…21…16…22…25…20…29)
36. Florida Atlantic – 56.72 (43…44…x…x…x…x…x…x…x…x…x)
37. Kansas St. – 56.46 (31…26…27…29…24…39…33…35…x…45…36)
38. North Carolina – 55.23 (41..42..36..32..29..27..19..11..15..12..13)
39. The Citadel – 53.83 (37…33…29…33…32…27…32…35…x…x…x)
40. Texas A&M – 53.58 (39..37..32..26..22..22..23..27..38..29..30)
41. Liberty – 51.69 (47…47…x…x…x…x…44…46…49…x…x)
42. Texas Tech – 51.04 (45…48…x…x…x…x…x…x…x…x…x)
43. Portland – 50.91 (46…x…x…x…x…x…x…x…x…x…x)
44. Appalachian State – 50.65 (42…x…x…x…46…x…x…30…x…x…x)
44. Kentucky – 50.65 (40…34…40…48…49…31…28…19…22…32…38)
46. Southeastern Louisiana – 50.51 (44..31..35..27..26..23..24..37..36..x..x)
47. Oregon St. – 49.77 (29…24…14…11…15…9…10…14…16…15…16)
48. New Mexico State – 45.27 (50…x…x…x…x…x…x…x…x…x…x)
49. Louisiana-Lafayette – 48.38 (x…x…x…x…x…x…49…x…x…x…x)
50. Washington – 47.54 (x…x…x…x…x…x…x…40…x…x…x)
COMPOSITE NATIONAL RANKINGS (CNR) CRITERIA: CB360’s 100-point Composite National Rankings formula currently is centered around 15 core ingredients – combining a diverse collection of “experts” (ranging from coaches, various media, computer calculations and projections) – to help provide a preview of teams that could be in the running for 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 “last-10-games” records – will be included in the CNR formula, with CollegeBaseball360 soon to begin generating its own projection of the NCAA field (based on the CNR formula).
Here’s the breakdown of the current “15-ingredient” CNR formula (three main areas):
• Six National Polls/Rankings – USA Today/ESPN (coaches poll) … NCBWA (writers) … Baseball America … Collegiate Baseball … Rivals and Ping!Baseball
• Five RPI-Type Ratings: Official NCAA RPI … Boyds World ISR and Pseudo-RPI … and Warren Nolan’s RPI and NRPI
• Five NCAA Tournament Field Projections: from Baseball America, Rivals, SEBaseball.com and ESPN.com bracketology
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 RPI 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 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 15 core factors are averaged, with 40 points then added to each total in order to yield the 100-point benchmark.
Here are links to the 15 criteria used in the CNR:
• National Coaches Poll (USA Today/ESPN)
• Nat’l Collegiate Baseball Writers poll
• Baseball America poll
• Colllegiate Baseball magazine rankings
• Rivals.com rankings
• Ping!Baseball.com rankings
• Official NCAA RPI
• Boyds World Pseudo-RPI
• Boyds World Iterative Strength Ratings
• Warren Nolan RPI
• Warren Nolan N-RPI
• Baseball America NCAA field projection
• SE Baseball NCAA field projection
• Rivals NCAA field projection
• ESPN.com bracketology projection