CB360 Week-2 College Baseball Composite Rankings (2015)

February 19, 2015
By

The top six teams in the CB360 Composite National Rankings (CNR) Top-50 – Vanderbilt, Virginia, TCU, Florida, LSU and UCLA – remain unchanged following Opening Week of the 2015 college baseball season. Current [7] Houston and [8] Texas each have moved up one spot within the top-10, while Texas Tech is the newcomer among the top tier – making the move from 17th to 9th (Louisville remains in the final spot of the top-10). Oklahoma State, after losing 2-of-3 at Arizona State, slid outside of the top-10, from 7th to 13th.

– Scroll down for the current CB360 Top-50 … CLICK HERE for the preseason top-50, with complete release, historical notes, etc.

(Note: this first update to the CNR always includes some quirks within the formula, as the coaches poll does not do an updated ranking after week-1 while the CNR formula initially includes more elements for the preseason listing, based on the bonus inclusion of deeper polls, projected tournament fields, etc.) 

Coming and Going – Here are the six teams that have moved into the CB360 Top-50 following week-1:
[31] Florida International (FIU) … won series vs. Tennessee
[32] Indiana … won series at Stanford
[40] UNLV … won series vs. Nebraska
[43] Baylor … swept series vs. Cal Poly
[47] Washington … swept 4-game series vs. UOP
[50] Fresno State … swept series vs. UC Irvine

… and these six have slipped outside the top-50:
[42] Kent State … lost series at Winthrop
[43] Wichita State … lost series at Sam Houston State
[46] Ball State … lost vs. Kentucky and UNC Wilmimgton
[48] San Diego … lost 3-of-4 at home vs. Morehead State
[49] Kentucky
[50] Dallas Baptist

Movers & Shakers – In addition to Texas Tech (4-gm sweep of San Francisco), three other teams climbed seven of more spots within the top-50:
• Arkansas (#36 to #25) … swept series vs. North Dakota
• Texas A&M (#33 to #24) … swept series vs. Holy Cross
• Illinois (#37 to #30) … two wins vs. New Mexico State and two wins vs. host Lamar

… and these six teams each slid seven or more sports while still remaining within the top-50:
• Clemson (#27 to #44) … lost home series vs. West Virginia
• Tennessee (#30 to #41) … lost series at FIU
• Nebraska (#26 to #36) … lost series at UNLV
• St. John’s (#40 to #49) … lost at Georgia Tech and split two games at Kennesaw State
• Cal Poly (#28 to #37) … swept in series at Baylor
• Oregon State (#31 to #38) … wins over Northwestern and Michigan State, loss vs. New Mexico (all in Surprise, AZ)

CONFERENCE CALL – Here is the breakdown of the current CB360 top-50, by conference:

10 SEC teams (3 top-8; 4 top-16; 7 top-25) – (1) Vandy, (4) Florida, (5) LSU, (12) SC, (19) Miss. St., (24) A&M, (25) ARK, (28) Ole Miss, (29) AL and (39) TN

7 ACC teams (1 top-8; 5 top-16; 5 top-25 ) – (2) UVa, (10) Louisville, (11) Miami, (14) UNC, (16) FSU, (35) Ga. Tech and (43) Clemson

6 Pac-12 teams (1 top-8; 1 top-16; 3 top-25): – (6) UCLA, (17) ASU, (18) Oregon, (26) Stanford,  (41) Oregon St and (47) Washington

5 Big 12 teams (2 top-8; 4 top-16; 4 top-25) – (3) TCU, (8) Texas, (9) Texas Tech,  (13) Oklahoma St and (44) Baylor

4 Big Ten teams (1 top-25 team) – (20) Maryland, (30) Illinois, (32) Indiana and (37) Nebraska

4 Big West teams (2 top-25) – (21) UCSB, (22) Fullerton, (36) Cal Poly and (38) Irvine

2 West Coast Conf. teams – (34) LMU and (48) Pepperdine

2 American Athletic Conf. teams (1 top-8) – (7) Houston and (33) UCF)

2 Conference USA teams (1 top-16) – (15) Rice and (31) FIU

• 2 Mountain West teams (1 top-16) – (40) UNLV and (50) Fresno State

1 each (6 teams) – Atlantic Sun (#23 Kennesaw) … Big South (#27 Liberty) … Colonial (#42 Coll. Charleston) …  Southland (#45 La.-Lafayette) … Sun Belt (#46 Sam Houston) … BIG EAST (#49 St. John’s)

COMPOSITE NATIONAL RANKINGS (CNR) CRITERIA: 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 various RPI-type 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 only are used early in the season (SOS 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 polls/ratings/projections are averaged, with 40 points typically then added to each total in order to yield the 100-point benchmark. Early in the season (projected SOS; and preseason conference coaches polls) and late in the season (final-10 games), a maximum bonus/penalty of 2.0 (SOS & conf. poll) or 0.5 points (final-10) is factored into the formula (in that case, 38.0, or 39.5, rather than 40, is added to the poll/rating/projection avg.).

Here are links to the eight criteria currently used in the CNR:
• National Coaches Poll (USA Today/ESPN; top-25, plus rec. votes)
• National Collegiate Baseball Writers poll (top-30, plus rec. votes)
DIBaseball.com top-25 (plus rec. votes)
Baseball America top-25
Collegiate Baseball magazine rankings (30 teams)
Perfect Game rankings (top-25)
• Boyd’s World projected season strength of schedule (bonus points, max. 1.0)
• Assorted conference preseason coaches polls (bonus points, max. 1.0)

CB360 Composite National Rankings #2 (top-50; as of 2–19–15)

(rank) Team – voting pts (previous/2015 preseason)
1. Vanderbilt – 98.59  (1)
2. Virginia – 97.30  (2)
3. TCU – 96.45  (3)
4. Florida – 95.25  (4)
5. LSU – 94.73  (5)
6. UCLA – 92.99  (6)
7. Houston – 92.74  (8)
8. Texas – 91.16  (9)
9. Texas Tech – 89.34  (17)
10. Louisville – 88.55  (10)
11. Miami – 87.12  (18)
12. South Carolina – 87.11  (11)
13. Oklahoma State – 86.38  (7)
14. North Carolina – 84.77  (12)
15. Rice – 84.42  (14)
16. Florida State – 84.13  (13)
17. Arizona State – 83.13  (15)
18. Oregon – 81.55  (21)
19. Mississippi State – 78.75  (19)
20. Maryland – 73.22  (20)
21. UC Santa Barbara – 73.01  (25)
22. Cal State Fullerton – 70.48  (16)
23. Kennesaw State – 67.37  (23)
24. Texas A&M – 64.92  (33)
25. Arkansas – 62.88  (36)
26. Stanford – 60.27  (22)
27. Liberty – 59.79  (29)
28. Mississippi – 59.32  (24)
29. Alabama – 57.06  (35)
30. Illinois – 55.92  (37)
31. Florida International – 53.49  (–)
32. Indiana – 52.21  (–)
33. Central Florida (UCF) – 51.19  (38)
34. Georgia Tech – 49.95  (39)
35. Loyola Marymount – 49.88  (32)
36. Nebraska – 48.15  (26)
37. Cal Poly – 47.53  (28)
38. Oregon State – 46.69  (31)
39. UC Irvine – 46.42  (41)
40. UNLV – 46.18  (–)
41. Tennessee – 45.97  (30)
42. College of Charleston – 45.62  (34)
43. Baylor – 44.89  (–)
44. Clemson – 44.40  (27)
45. Louisiana (Lafayette) – 43.75  (44)
46. Sam Houston State – 43.66  (47)
47. Washington – 43.57  (–)
48. Pepperdine – 43.34  (45)
49. St. John’s – 41.78  (40)
50. Fresno State – 41.64  (–)

– Dropped Out of the Top-50:
(42) Kent State
(43) Wichita State
(46) Ball State
(48) San Diego
(49) Kentucky
(50) Dallas Baptist

Tags:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *