CB360 Composite National Rankings #3 – March 3

March 3, 2010
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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.

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