Only a few days remain in the jockeying for position, with NCAA “Selection Monday” rapidly approaching. CB360 has updated its exclusive Composite National Rankings (CNR), with Arizona State extending its run at the top spot to 10 straight weeks while Cal State Fullerton (#9) is back in the top-10 for the first time since late February. (front-page photo courtesy of Coastal Carolina)
Current #2 Texas and #3 Virginia flipped spots for the second straight week, as those teams have been #2 or #3 for each of the past six weeks (UVa was #4 in the preseason CNR and has been in the top-3 every week since that preseason listing). Coastal Carolina (#4) similarly moved up a spot, swapping with current #5 Forida, while the #6-7-8 teams (UCLA-Louisville-Georgia Tech) remain in the same spots from the previous week. South Carolina has dropped back a position to #10, while Florida State tumbled seven spots to #17.
(note that CB360 is planning to release an NCAA Tournament projection over the next few days, based primarily on the CNR.)
The CNR’s all-inclusive ranking formula currently includes 16 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) – along with a bonus/penalty for record over the past 10 games.
(Note – scroll to end of this release for detailed description of the CNR, including direct links to all 15 criteria).
CNR Contact: Pete LaFleur (pete@collegebaseball360.com)
CNR TOP-50 CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN (May 26)
SEC (9 … 2 top-10, 6 top-25) – #5 Florida, #10 South Carolina, #13 Arkansas, #14 auburn, #16 Vanderbilt, #23 Mississippi, #29 Alabama, #34 LSU & #45 Kentucky
ACC (8 … 2 top-10, 6 top-25) – #3 Virginia, #8 Georgia Tech, #12 Miami, #17 Florida St., #21 Clemson, #25 Virginia Tech, #31 North Carolina & #48 North Carolina St.
Pacific-10 (8 … 2 top-10, 4 top-25) – #1 Arizona St., #6 UCLA, #19 Oregon, #24 Washington St., #29 Arizona, #32 Stanford, #40 Oregon St. & #41 California
Big 12 (5 … 1 top-10, 2 top-25) – #2 Texas, #15 Oklahoma, #26 Texas A&M, #37 Kansas St. & #43 Baylor
BIG EAST (3) – #7 Louisville, #18 Connecticut & #42 Pittsburgh
Southern (3) – #28 College of Charleston, #39 Citadel & #44 Elon
Sunbelt (3) – #33 Louisiana-Lafayette, #35 Florida Atlantic & #47 Western Kentucky
2 Each – Big South (#4 Coastal Carolina & #49 Liberty) … Big West (#9 Cal State Fullerton & #26 UC Irvine) … Mountain West (#11 TCU & #38 New Mexico) … Southland (#46 Texas St. & #50 SE Louisiana)
1 Each – Atlantic Sun (#36 Florida Gulf Coast) … Conference USA (#22 Rice) … West Coast (#20 San Diego)
BIGGEST JUMPS IN THE CNR TOP-50 – North Carolina (#40 to #31) … Florida Gulf Coast (#44 to #36) … and Louisiana-Lafayette (#39 to #33)
BIGGEST DROPS IN THE CNR TOP-50 – Southeastern Louisiana (#34 to #50) … California (#30 to #41) … Florida State (#10 to #17) … Kentucky (#38 to #45) … and Mississippi (#17 to #23)
RETURNERS TO THE CNR TOP-50 – #43 Baylor & #48 North Carolina State
DROPPED OUT OF THE CNR TOP-50 – #48 Tennessee & #50 Southern Mississippi
College Baseball 2010 Composite National Rankings #15 (CNR)
courtesy of CollegeBaseball360.com; May 20, 2010
(previous CNR spots listed in order, with preseason far right)
(automated tables to be added to this page, similar to the previous week)
1. Arizona State – 95.25 (1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-3-6-6-9-10)
2. Texas – 94.40 (3-2-2-2-2-5-8-10-10-4-3-3-2-1)
3. Virginia – 93.90 (2-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-2-1-2-2-3-4)
4. Coastal Carolina – 92.46 (5-5-5-6-8-9-13-13-11-14-5-10-18-18)
5. Florida – 91.53 (4-4-4-7-9-7-9-9-6-11-10-5-8-9)
6. UCLA – 89.88 (6-8-8-4-6-2-2-2-3-2-8-17-24-25)
7. Louisville – 88.52 (7-6-6-9-10-11-5-7-8-8-7-11-14-19)
8. Georgia Tech – 87.43 (8-10-10-8-5-6-4-5-14-12-17-7-7-8)
9. Cal St. Fullerton – 87.34 (11-12-14.-15-15-17-23-30-26-36-42-23-4-3)
10. South Carolina – 86.64 (9-14-11-12-12-12-15-19-20-27-24-19-19-20)
11. TCU – 85.18 (12-11-12-11-14-13-17-14-13-9-13-8-10-11)
12. Miami – 84.42 (13-13-13.-14-11-15-14-17-17-20-21-12-13-14)
13. Arkansas – 83.86 (14-7-7-5-4-4-6-8-18-13-16-14-16-15)
14. Auburn – 82.72 (16-18-18-26-28-24-36-31-33-x-49-x-x-x)
15. Oklahoma – 81.88 (18-17-17-19-21-19-20-16-16-15-20-26-28-28)
16. Vanderbilt – 80.82 (15-16-25-24-17-21-18-18-19-17-15-28-33-31)
17. Florida State – 78.76 (10-9-9-10-13-8-10-4-5-7-4-4-6-7)
18. Connecticut – 75.36 (19-19-19-18-23-30-39-38-47-38-x-x-x-x)
19. Oregon – 75.32 (23-25-20-20-20-31-34-34-44-45-45-40-30-x)
20. San Diego – 75.23 (20-22-27-33-40-46-49-x-x-x-x-37-22-21)
21. Clemson – 73.45 (24-23-25-27-19-16-12-11-4-5-9-9-11-12)
22. Rice – 73.45 (22-21-23-21-27-28-30-43-24-22-23-21-17-6)
23. Mississippi – 70.10 (17-15-15-17-22-20-16-12-15-18-18-20-23-22)
24. Washington State – 70.00 (28-48-x-x-x-44-x-40-34-30-29-35-x–x)
25. Virginia Tech – 67.70 (21-20-22-23-30-25-43-x-x-x-48-x-x-x)
26. UC Irvine – 65.25 (26-29-28-30-38-33-21-28-26-31-28-13-5-5)
27. Texas A&M – 65.21 (31-41-40-39-37-32-26-22-22-23-27-38-29-30)
28. Coll. of Charleston – 64.74 (27-31-33-38-39-39-28-33-30-x-47-50-x-x)
29. Alabama – 61.58 (33-34-29-32-35-26-22-25-12-21-25-33-39-34)
30. Arizona – 60.85 (25-27-21-16-16-23-25-21-25-x-x-x-41-41)
31. North Carolina – 59.76 (40-36-38-41-42-36-32-29-27-19-11-15-12-13)
32. Stanford – 58.87 (35-28-35-22-29-45-24-23-21-16-22-25-20-29)
33. Louisiana-Lafayette – 58.71 (39-46-49-x-x-x-x-x-x-49-x-x-x-x)
34. LSU – 57.27 (29-24-16-13-7-10-7-6-7-6-1-1-1-2)
35. Florida Atlantic – 56.84 (37-37-36-43-44-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x)
36. Florida Gulf Coast – 56.31 (44-50-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-44-50-48)
37. Kansas St. – 55.69 (32-38-37-31-26-27-29-24-39-33-35-x-45-36)
38. New Mexico – 54.20 (36-33-32-36-32-34-37-42-36-29-32-31-31-x)
39. The Citadel – 53.47 (43-42-39-37-33-29-33-32-27-32-35-x-x-x)
40. Oregon St. – 52.09 (41-35-47-29-24-14-11-15-9-10-14-16-15-16)
41. California – 51.53 (30-26-24-25-18-22-31-x-x-x-44-x-x-x)
42. Pittsburgh – 51.35 (42-30-31-34-36-43-x-35-x-x-x-x-x-x)
43. Baylor – 49.57 (x-x-x-x-49-38-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x)
44. Elon – 49.56 (45-49-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x)
45. Kentucky – 49.49 (38-45-44-40-34-40-48-49-31-28-19-22-32-38)
46. Texas State – 49.01 (49-32-30-35-45-37-42-39-x-47-x-x-x-x)
47. Western Kentucky – 49.00 (47-44-34-28-25-18-19-20-28-37-41-32-x-x)
48. North Carolina State – 48.79 (x-x-x-x-50-x-40-x-x-48-33-39-x-x)
49. Liberty – 47.78 (46-39-41-47-47-x-x-x-x-44-46-49-x-x)
50. Southeastern Louisiana – 46.80 (34-47-46-44-31-35-27-26-23-24-37-36-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, projections and record ocer past 10 games) – 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). Here’s the breakdown of the current “16-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
• Bonus/Penalty for record over past 10 games
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. Finally, a bonus/penalty is factored in based on record over past 10 games (teams 10-0 over the past 10 get a bonus of 0.5 points, 9-1 get 0.4 … 5-5 has no penalty/bonus, 0-10 is a -0.5 penalty, etc.).
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