College baseball showcased its own version of March Madness throughout the country last week – as more than half of the teams in the CB360 Composite National Rankings (CNR) Top–50 were doing battle against fellow top–50 teams. When the dust had settled, several teams had soared to new heights on the national landscape, while others were brought down a peg. The exciting weekend – nation-wide – served as a perfect primer as various leagues being to east into conference play.
front-page photo of Grayson Long courtesy of Texas A&M
Texas A&M remained the only unbeaten about 304 Division I programs, as the Aggies rode their strong pitching staff to victories over three quality opponents (Nebraska, Houston and Baylor, all at Minute Maid Park in the Houston College Classic). The Aggies, who previously had yet to leave home while playing a fairly soft schedule, vaulted from 22nd to 8th in the CB360 Top–50, while USC‘s rise from 24th to 11th followed three straight wins over the #2, #3 and #4 in last week’s CNR (TCU, Vanderbilt and crosstown rival UCLA).
Other movers and shakers include Illinois (#37 to #23, after winning series at Oklahoma State) and Cal State Fullerton, whose yo-yo season continued with a home sweep of Texas Tech (the Titans rose from 40th back up to 24th this week).
– Scroll down for the current CB360 Top-50
(CLICK HERE for the preseason top-50, with complete release, historical notes, etc.
… week-2 update … week–3 … week–4)
The CNR Top-50 – which made its debut on CB360 in 2009 – can serve as a snapshot for teams that project for making the NCAAs (as at-large entrants, if they don’t win their conference automatic bids). In the past, the weekly top-50 also has included a listing of other projected NCAA qualifiers, for conferences that don’t feature any teams in the top-50 … and those teams also are included at the bottom of this page, based on a composite of various preseason conference predictions.
See previous CNR releases (linked above) for in-depth criteria, poll history, etc.
CB360 Composite National Rankings #5 (top-50, plus projected NCAA field-of-64)
(through games as of 3–8–15)
(rank) Team – voting pts (previous weeks … 2015 preseason)
1. TCU – 98.37 (#2 after week–3 … #2 after week–2 … #3 after week–1 … #3 preseason)
2. Virginia – 97.67 (1 … 1 … 2 … 2)
3. Florida – 97.28 (5 … 4 … 4 … 4)
4. LSU – 96.08 (6 … 7 … 5 … 5)
5. Vanderbilt – 93.88 (3 … 3 … 1 … 1)
6. Oregon – 92.34 (10 … 15 … 18 … 21)
7. South Carolina – 91.09 (8 … 10 … 12 … 11)
8. Texas A&M – 90.18 (22 … 24 … 24 … 33)
9. UCF (Central Florida) – 90.02 (14 … 19 … 33 … 38)
10. UCLA – 89.68 (4 … 5 … 6 … 6)
11. USC – 87.72 (24 … 37 … – … –)
12. Rice – 86.65 (13 … 11 … 15 … 14)
13. North Carolina – 85.02 (15 …12 … 14 … 12)
14. Arizona State – 83.93 (16 … 13 … 17 … 15)
15. Florida State – 82.28 (21 … 22 … 16 … 13)
16. Texas – 82.10 (12 … 9 … 8 … 9)
17. UC Santa Barbara – 80.71 (19 … 17 … 21 … 25)
18. Louisville – 77.52 (23 … 20 … 10 … 10)
19. Texas Tech – 76.18 (7 … 9 … 17)
20. Mississippi State – 75.74 (11 … 16 … 19 … 19)
21. Miami – 73.15 (17 … 14 … 11 … 18)
22. Houston – 71.66 (9 … 6 … 7 … 8)
23. Illinois – 70.93 (37 … 27 … 30 … 37)
24. Cal State Fullerton – 70.62 (40 … 43 … 22 … 16)
25. Oregon State – 69.53 (28 … 28 … 38 … 31)
26. Florida Atlantic – 65.07 (26 … 36 … – … –)
27. Dallas Baptist – 63.30 (25 … 25 … – … 50)
28. Nevada – 60.10 (35 … 40 … – … –)
29. Maryland – 55.17 (18 … 21 … 20 … 20)
30. Auburn – 54.27 (38 … – … – … –)
31. Georgia Tech – 54.05 (29 … 32 … 34 … 39)
32. Oklahoma State – 53.82 (20 … 18 … 13 … 7)
33. San Diego State – 52.54 (27 … 33 … – … –)
34. Stanford – 51.90 (34 … 44 … 26 … 22)
35. New Mexico – 51.59 (42 … – … – … –)
36. Arkansas – 48.48 (32 … 35 … 25 … 36)
37. Arizona – 47.57 (– … – … – … –)
38. San Diego – 47.27 (45 … – … – … –)
39. Notre Dame – 46.40 (33 … – … – … –)
40. UNC Wilmington – 44.48 (– … 50 … – … –)
41. California – 44.24 (44 … – … – … –)
42. Tulane – 44.21 (31 … 39 … – … –)
43. Campbell – 44.06 (– … – … – … –)
44. Cal State Northridge 43.23 (– … – … – … –)
45. Georgia Southern – 43.11 (– … – … – … –)
46. Mississippi – 42.03 (30 … 26 … 28 … 24)
47. Alabama – 41.93 (41 … 31 … 29 … 35)
47. Kennesaw State – 41.93 (46 … 23 … 23 … 23)
47. Louisiana-Lafayette – 41.93 (– … – … 45 … 44)
50. Georgia – 41.75 (– 29 … – … –)
• 16 Other Projected 2015 NCAA Tournament Teams:
(based on composite preseason projections; to be updated throughout season):
St. John’s (BIG EAST) … Western Carolina (SoCon) … Sam Houston State (Southland)
Sacramento State (WAC) … Kent State (Mid-American) … Southeast Missouri State (Ohio Valley)
Bucknell (Patriot League) … Bryant (Northeast) … Alabama State (SWAC) … Columbia (Ivy League)
Virginia Commonwealth (A-10) … Stony Brook (America East) … Wright State (Horizon League)
Bethune-Cookman (MEAC) … Canisius (MAAC) … Oral Roberts (Summit)
– Dropped Out of the Top-50 after Week–4:
36. Long Beach State – 48.09 (– … – … –)
39. College of Charleston – 45.83 (30 … 42 … 34)
43. Baylor – 42.80 (34 … 43 … –)
47. Columbia – 42.46 (– … – … –)
48. Arkansas State – 42.40 (– … – … –)
49. Coastal Carolina – 42.40 (– … – … –)
50. Clemson – 42.30 (48 … 44 … 27)
– Dropped Out of the Top-50 after Week–3:
29. Georgia – 50.50 (– … –)
38. UNLV – 42.27 (40 … –)
41. Grand Canyon – 41.57 (– … –)
42. Nebraska – 41.36 (36 … 26)
45. Tennessee – 39.02 (41 … 30)
46. Liberty – 38.57 (27 … 29)
47. Loyola Marymount – 38.52 (35 … 32)
49. Indiana – 38.04 (32 … –)
50. UNC Wilmington – 38.01 (– … –)
Dropped Out of Top-50 after Week–2:
31. Florida International
37. Cal Poly (#28 preseason)
39. UC Irvine (41)
45. Louisiana (Lafayette) (44)
46. Sam Houston State (47)
47. Washington
48. Pepperdine (45)
49. St. John’s (40)
50. Fresno State
Note: the following teams dropped out of the top-50 after being in the preseason CNR – (42) Kent State, (43) Wichita State, (46) Ball State, (48) San Diego and (49) Kentucky (also #50 Dallas Baptist, which later returned to the top-50, as did USD this week).