Florida State has returned to the top position in CB360′s 100-point Composite National Rankings (CNR), earning the #1 spot for the fourth time during the past seven weeks (also #2 three times in that span). The top-10 now includes four teams enjoying their highest ranking in the seven-year history of the CNR: Louisiana-Lafayette (up from #4 to #2), Cal Poly (which stayed at #6), Houston (up from #8 to #7) and surging Washington, which jumpe from #19 to #10.
Previous CB360 Top-50 from 2014 Season:
Week-8 | Week-7 | Week-6 | Week-5 | Week-4 | Week-3 | Week-2 | Preseason
Florida State has returned to the top position in CB360′s 100-point Composite National Rankings (CNR), earning the #1 spot for the fourth time during the past seven weeks (also #2 three times in that span). The top-10 now includes four teams enjoying their highest ranking in the seven-year history of the CNR: Louisiana-Lafayette (up from #4 to #2), Cal Poly (which stayed at #6), Houston (up from #8 to #7) and surging Washington, which jumped from #19 to #10.
South Carolina slid a couple spots to #3, Virginia dropped back one position to 4th and Texas continued its climb by rising from 7th to 5th. Vanderbilt dropped from 5th to 8th and Oregon State remained 9th, completing the current top-10. Previous-week #10 Rice now stands 18th in the CNR.
With previous #34 North Carolina and (47) Sam Houston State both sliding outside the top-50, that means that exactly half of the teams in the CNR preseason top-50 have dropped out of the top-50 at some point during the 2014 season (UNC was #13 in the preseason CNR, while SHSU was 46th).
In addition to UNC and Sam Houston, four other teams have dropped out of the CNR top-50 from last week: (31) Auburn, (37) Seton Hall, (47) UAB and (49) Duke. There are two teams making their 2014 debut in the CNR top-50 – (48) Illinois State and (50) Wake Forest – while four others have returned to top-50 status: (31) Arkansas, (42) UC Irvine, (45) Kansas and (49) TCU.
In addition to Washington’s climb, others making big jumps in the CNR include San Diego (#46 to #27), Indiana State (#44 to #35) and Dallas Baptist (#48 to #36). A couple SEC teams tumbled within the top-20 – Florida from 12th to 20th and Mississippi State from 14th to 2nd – with other noteworthy drops for UCLA (#23 to #33), Oklahoma (#30 to #37), VCU (#33 to #46) and Florida International (#39 to #47).
The current top-50 includes 10 SEC teams (seven of them among the top-20), plus seven each from the ACC and Big 12, and five from the Pac-12. Other conference currently represented in the CNR: four from the Big West … three each from the Missouri Valley and Mountain West … two each from the American Athletic, Conference USA and West Coast Conference … one each from the Atlantic 10, Atlantic Sun, Big South, Big Ten and Sun Belt.
Among the teams in the 2014 CB360 preseason top-50, exactly half of them (25) have slipped out of the top-50 at some point during the season: (13) North Carolina, (18) Kansas State, (21) Arizona State, (22) TCU, (25) Texas A&M, (26) Alabama, (28) Arizona, (29) East Carolina, (30) Arkansas, (31) Florida Atlantic, (34) Oklahoma, (35) Georgia Tech, (36) UNC Wilmington, (38) Western Carolina, (39) Nebraska, (40) New Mexico, (41) Wichita State, (42) Stanford, (43) Coastal Carolina, (45) Liberty, (45) UNLV, (46) Mercer, (46) Sam Houston State, (49) Washington State and (50) North Florida.
Here are some of the midseason success stories, based on the CNR:
• Five teams that were not in the CNR preseason top-50 now have landed in the top-30: (10) Washington, (24) UNLV, (26) Tennessee, (28) Pepperdine and (29) Texas Tech
• Louisiana-Lafayette cb360 preseason #24, now #2
• Texas preseason #23 (now #5)
• Cal Poly preseason #27 (now #6)
• Houston preseason #50 (now #7)
• Kentucky preseason #44 (now #11)
• Ole Miss preseason #32 (now #13)
• UC Santa Barbara preseason #37 (now #19)
Six of the teams in the CB360 preseason top-10 now find themselves outside of the top-10, including Indiana (preseason #7) all the way down at 25th and current #22 Mississippi State (opened season at #4). Cal State Fullerton was the CB360 preseason #1 (now 21st), while current #39 NC State was 8th in the preseason. LSU was #6 in the CNR preseason but now is 12th, and current #15 Oregon opened the season in the 9th spot.
CB360 Composite Top-50 Rankings for 2014 – Week 9 (thru games of 4–6–14)
(rank) Team – CNR pts (prev.: week-8 CNR … week-7 .. week-6 .. week-5 .. week-4 .. week-3 .. week-2 .. preseason)
1. Florida State – 98.59 (2 … 1 … 2 … 2 … 1 … 1 … 3 … 5 preseason)
2. Louisiana-Lafayette – 97.65 (4 … 4 … 7 … 10 … 12 … 18 … 21 … 24)
3. South Carolina – 96.77 (1 … 2 … 1… 1 … 3 … 8 … 9 … 12)
4. Virginia – 96.30 (3 … 3 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 2 … 4 … 3)
5. Texas – 94.11 (7 … 13 … 14 … 12 … 16 … 23 … 26 … 23)
6. Cal Poly – 93.82 (6 … 9 … 8 … 11 … 13 … 16 … 24 … 27)
7. Houston – 92.40 (8 … 12 … 23 … 29 … 42 … 41 … 41 … 50)
8. Vanderbilt – 92.11 (5 … 5 … 3 … 4 … 5 … 6 … 7 … 10)
9. Oregon State – 90.78 (9 … 11 … 5 … 5 … 6 … 5 … 2 … 2)
10. Washington – 88.35 (19 … 27 … 42 … – … – … – … – … –)
11. Kentucky – 86.70 (17 … 15 … 25 … 20 … 21 … 33 … 35 … 44)
12. LSU – 85.82 (15 … 7 … 11 … 7 … 8 … 3 … 6 … 6)
13. Mississippi – 85.53 (18 … 10 … 12 … 15 … 19 … 30 … 30 … 32)
14. Alabama – 84.78 (20 … 43 … 27 … – … 38 … 26 … 25 … 26)
15. Oregon – 83.53 (11 … 6 … 6 … 9 … 9 … 7 … 8 … 9)
16. Louisville – 81.96 (16 … 17 … 15 … 14 … 14 … 13 … 14 … 14)
17. Clemson – 80.17 (13 … 19 … 16 … 18 … 17 … 12 … 16 … 16)
18. Rice – 78.62 (10 … 8 … 10 … 16 … 18 …11 … 15 … 15)
19. UC Santa Barbara – 76.98 (22 … 16 … 22 … 23 … 49 … 40 … 45 … 37)
20. Florida – 76.32 (12 … 35 … 45 … 44 … 46 … 21 … 18 … 19)
21. Cal State Fullerton – 76.16 (21 … 14 … 17 … 8 … 4 … 4 … 1 … 1)
22. Mississippi State – 74.71 (14 … 18 … 24 … 17 … 10 … 10 … 5 … 4)
23. Miami – 74.02 (27 … 37 … 30 … 19 … 20 … 15 … 17 … 17)
24. UNLV – 72.45 (24 … 32 … 41 … 48 … – … – … – … –)
25. Indiana – 70.72 (25 … 33 … 32 … 25 … 24 … 24 … 12 … 7)
26. Tennessee – 69.14 (26 … 20 … 18 … 21 … 31 … 46 … – … –)
27. San Diego – 65.49 (46 … 47 … 21 … 31 … 27 … 37 … 36 … 33)
28. Pepperdine – 65.19 (32 … 42 .. – … 34 … – … – … – … –)
29. Texas Tech – 65.16 (29 … 30 … 28 … 28 … 34 … 32 … 33 … –)
30. Arizona State – 64.24 (28 … – … – … 43 … 36 … 27 … 20 … 21)
31. Arkansas – 63.22 (– … – … – … 44 … 29 … 25 … 28 … 30)
32. Oklahoma State – 61.93 (36 … 39 … 29 … 27 … 22 … 19 … 19 … 20)
33. UCLA – 61.53 (23 … 22 … 20 … 22 … 11 … 14 … 11 … 11)
34. Liberty – 61.08 (38 … 46 … 50 … – … – … – … – … 45)
35. Indiana State – 59.55 (44 … 41 … 40 … 49 … – … – … – … –)
36. Dallas Baptist – 59.20 (48 … – … 48 … – … – … – … – … –)
37. Oklahoma – 59.18 (30 … 34 … 44 … – … – … 50 … 40 … 34)
38. Mercer – 55.45 (42 … 48 … – … – … 50 … 41 … 41 … 46)
39. North Carolina State – 54.68 (34 … 24 … 13 … 6 … 7 … 9 … 10 … 8)
40. San Diego State – 54.14 (41 … 40 … 38 … – … – … – … – … –)
41. Maryland – 53.36 (45 … 25 … 46 … 50 … 48 … – … – … –)
42. UC Irvine – 52.86 (– … – … – … 35 … – … – … – … –)
43. New Mexico – 51.58 (49 … 49 … 34 … – … 46 … 45 … 50 … 40)
44. West Virginia – 50.64 (40 … – … – … – … – … – … – … –)
45. Kansas – 50.50 (– … – … 31 … 42 … 32 … – … – … –)
46. VCU – 50.16 (33 … 26 … 33 … 40 … 41 … – … – … –)
47. Florida International – 49.36 (39 … 28 … 39 … 26 … 28 … 48 … – … –)
48. Illinois State – 48.79 (– … – … – … – … – … – … – … –)
49. TCU – 48.00 (– … – … 35 … 32 … 26 … 20 … 22 … 22)
50. Wake Forest – 47.40 (– … – … – … – … – … – … – … –)
dropped out of top-50:
31. Auburn – 54.98 (31 … 23 … 37 … – … – …. – … – … –)
34. North Carolina – 53.18 (34 … 21 … 9 … 13 … 15 … 17 … 13 … 13)
37. Seton Hall – 52.09 (37 … 29 … 26 … 33 … 35 … – … – … –)
43. Sam Houston State – 49.23 (43 … 44 … 19 … 24 … 25 … 41 … 41 … 46)
47. UAB – 46.04 (47 … – … – … 46 … – … – … – … –)
49. Duke – 44.98 (49 … – … – … – … – … – … – … –)
Other teams that have dropped out of the CNR top-50 so far in 2014:
• Kansas State (#18 preseason, #27 after week-1, #28 after week-2)
• TCU (#22 preseason & after week-1, #20 after week-2, #26 after week-3, #32 after week-4, #35 after week-5) – has returned to current top-50
• Texas A&M (#25 preseason, then 23–22–37–30-43–38 after week-7)
• Alabama (#26 preseason … #25 after week-1 … #26 after week-2 … #38 after week-3) – has returned to top-50
• Arizona (#28 preseason, #29 after week-1 & week-2)
• East Carolina (#29 preseason, #32 after week-1, #34 after week-2)
• Arkansas (#30 preseason, #28 after week-1, #25 after week-2, #29 after week-3, #44 after week-4) – has returned to top-50
• Florida Atlantic (#31 preseason, also after week-1 & week-2, #33 after week-3, #39 after week-4)
• Oklahoma (#34 preseason, #40 after week-2, #50 after week-2) – has returned to current top-50
• Georgia Tech (#35 preseason, #38 after week-1 & week-2, later #31 after week-7)
• UNC Wilmington (#36 preseason, #37 after week-1, #36 after week-2)
• Western Carolina (#38 preseason, #48 after week-1, #44 after week-2, #45 after week-3)
• Nebraska (#39 preseason & after week-1, #35 after week-2)
• New Mexico (#40 preseason, #50 after week-1, #45 after week-2) – has returned to current top-50
• Wichita State (#41 preseason, #46 week-2, #47 after week-2)
• Stanford (#42 preseason and #47 after week-1)
• Coastal Carolina (#43 preseason)
• Liberty (#45 preseason) – has returned to current top-50
• UNLV (#46 preseason and #34 after week-1) – has returned to current top-50
• Mercer (#46 preseason, #41 after week-1 & week-2, #50 after week-3) – has returned to current top-50
• Washington State (#49 preseason and #41 after week-1)
• North Florida (#50 preseason and #48 after week-1)
• Baylor (#49 after week-2, #49 after week-5, #36 after week-6)
• Tennessee Tech (#42 after week-3
• USC (#39 after week-2, #42 after week-3)
• Pepperdine (#34 after week-4) – has returned to current top-50
• UC Irvine (#35 after week-4) – has returned to current top-50
• Fresno State (#23 after week-3, #37 after week-4)
• California (#40 after week-3, #38 after week-4)
• Georgia Southern (#41 after week-4)
• Kansas (#32 after week-3, #42 after week-4, #31 after week-5) – has returned to current top-50
• Memphis (#39 after week-3, #36 after week-4 and week-5)
• College of Charleston (#30 after week-3, #47 after week-4, #47 after week-5)
• Ohio State (#45 after week-6)
• Creighton (#50 after week-6)
Note – 15 teams that were in the top-50 of the final 2013 CNR, at end of the regular season, were not in the 2014 preseason CNR top-50: (17) South Alabama, (19) Virginia Tech, (23) Troy, (29) Pittsburgh, (30) Campbell, (37) South Florida, (41) Seton Hall, (42) Gonzaga, (43) Michigan State, (44) Austin Peay, (45) Maryland, (46) UC Irvine, (47) Notre Dame, (48) Illinois and (50) Ohio State.
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 late in the season (final-10 games), a maximum bonus/penalty of 0.3 (SOS) or 0.5 points (final-10) is factored into the formula (in that case, 39.7 or 39.5, rather than 40, is added to the poll/rating/projection avg.).
Here are links to the seven criteria currently used in the CNR:
• National Coaches Poll (USA Today/ESPN)
• National Collegiate Baseball Writers poll
• Baseball America rankings and midseason projection for NCAA field
• Collegiate Baseball magazine rankings
• Perfect Game rankings
• Official NCAA RPI
• Boyd’s World Iterative Strength Ratings (ISR)