The unbeaten Arizona State Sun Devils have moved up from third- to first-place, narrowly edging out previous #1 Virginia to sit atop CB360’s exclusive Composite National Rankings (CNR). The CNR currently utilizes 10 factors (polls and RPI-type numbers) – with ASU and UVa both averaging an average standing of 2.4 in those lists … Arizona State ultimately ended up with a narrow margin (97.22 to 96.86) over the Cavaliers, once the additional “voting/RPI point total” criteria was used to adjust for relative voting/score points (i.e. coaches and Collegiate Baseball poll) and RPI statistical numbers. (front-page photo courtesy of ASU/Jason Wise)

In the end, the Sun Devils had a slightly better CNR score than the Cavs. See the end of this release for desciption of the CNR formula – we’ll also have more later on this dead-heat CNR weekly finish (ASU is #1 in two of the CNR’s 10 ingredients, 2nd in five others, 3rd in one, 4th in one and 5th in one … UVa is #1 in four, #2 in two, #3 in two, #4 in one and #6 in one).

Current #3 UCLA dropped and #7 LSU both dropped one spot in the current update of the CNR, while Clemson (now #4) and Oregon State (#9) each improved one position. In-state rivals Florida State (#7 to #5) and Florida (#11 to #6) each picked up multiple spots in the latest CNR, with the Gators re-entering the top-10 (TCU dropped outside the top-10, from #9 to #13).  Louisville maintained its #8 spot while Texas narrowly remains in the top-10 (dropped from #4 to #10).

The current CNR formula now features six national polls and four RPI-type ratings – meaning that 10 different groups of “experts” (spanning coaches, media and computers) have combined to produce this composite top-50. Teams rising or falling in the CNR can be attributed to results from the previous week and/or the effect of the various RPI calculations. (Note – scroll to end of this release for detailed description of the CNR).

CNR Contact: Pete LaFleur (pete@collegebaseball360.com)

CNR TOP-50 CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN (March 24)

SEC (10 … 2 top-10, 7 top-25) – #6 Florida, #7 LSU, #12 Alabama, #15 Mississippi, #18 Arkansas, #19 Vanderbilt, #20 South Carolina, #31 Kentucky, #33 Auburn, #46 Mississippi State
Pacific-10 (7 … 3 top-10, 5 top-25) – #1 Arizona St., #3 UCLA, #9 Oregon St., #21 Stanford, #25 Arizona, #34 Washington St., #34 Oregon
ACC  (6 … 3 top-10, 5 top-25) – #2 Virginia, #4 Clemson, #5 Florida St., #14 Georgia Tech, #17 Miami, #27 North Carolina
Big 12 (5 … 1 top-10, 3 top-25) – #10 Texas, #16 Oklahoma, #22 Texas A&M, #39 Kansas St., #48 Kansas
Southern (4) – #30 College of Charleston, #32 Citadel, #35 Northwestern St., #50 Western Carolina)
Big West (3) – #26 UC Irvine, #29 Cal State Fullerton, #49 UC Riverside)
Conference USA (3 … 1 top-225) – #24 Rice, #37 East Carolina and #40 Southern Mississippi
2 Each – BIG EAST (#8 Louisville & #47 UConn) … Big South (#11 Coastal Carolina & #42 VMI), … Big Ten (#38 Michigan St. & #43 Ohio St.) … Mountain West (#13 TCU & #36 New Mexico)
1 Each – Metro (Manhattan) … Missouri Valley (#41 Wichita St.)  … Southland (#23 Southeast Louisiana) … Sunbelt (#28 Western Kentucky)

BIGGEST JUMPS IN THE CNR – Alabama (#21 to #12) … Western Kentucky (#37 to #28) … Oregon (#45 to #37) … South Carolina (#27 to #20) … Cal State Fullerton (#36 to #29) … VMI (#42 to #35)
BIGGEST DROPS IN THE CNR – Kansas (#25 to #48) … East Carolina (#26 to #37) … Wichita State (#32 to #41) … Connecticut (#38 to #47) … North Carolina (#19 to #27) … New Mexico (#29 to #36)   
NEWCOMERS/RETURNERS TO THE CNR – #25 Arizona … #30 College of Charleston … #33 Auburn … #45 Manhattan …  #49 UC Riverside … #50 Western Carolina (all but Manhattan and UCR were ranked previously this season in CNR top-50)
DROPPED OUT OF THE TOP-50 – #44 Liberty … #46 Villanova …  #47 Texas State … #48 North Carolina State … #49 Louisiana-Lafayette … #50 Hawaii

College Baseball 2010 Composite National Rankings #6 (CNR)
courtesy of CollegeBaseball360.com; March 24, 2010

(ranks in parentheses indicate March 17 rank … March 10 … March 3 … Feb. 24 … preseason)
1. Arizona State – 97.22  (3 … 6 … 6 … 9 … 10)
2. Virginia – 95.86  (1 … 2 … 2 … 3 … 4)
3. UCLA – 94.39  (2 … 8 … 17 … 24 … 25)
4. Clemson – 92.33  (5 … 9 … 9 … 11 … 12)
5. Florida State – 91.91  (7 … 4 … 4 … 6 … 7)
6. Florida – 90.19  (11 … 10 … 5 … 8 … 9)
7. LSU – 89.48  (6 … 1 … 1 … 1 … 2
8. Louisville – 89.10  (8 … 7 … 11 … 14 … 19)
9. Oregon State – 88.01  (10 … 14 … 16 … 15 … 16)
10. Texas – 86.73  (4 … 3 … 3 … 2 … 1)
11. Coastal Carolina – 86.21  (14 … 5 … 10 … 18 … 18)
12. Alabama – 85.62  (21 … 25 … 33 … 39 … 34)
13. TCU – 85.26  (9 … 13 … 8 … 10 … 11)
14. Georgia Tech – 83.79  (12 … 17 … 7 … 7 … 8 )
15. Mississippi – 82.52  (18 … 18 … 20 … 23 … 22)
16. Oklahoma – 81.58  (15 … 20 … 26 … 28 … 28)
17. Miami (FL) – 81.05  (20 … 21 … 12 … 13 … 14)
18. Arkansas  – 80.38  (13 … 16 … 14 … 16 … 15)
19. Vanderbilt – 77.22  (17 … 15 … 28 … 33 … 31)
20. South Carolina – 74.45  (27 … 24 … 19 … 19 … 20)
21. Stanford – 73.66  (16 … 22 … 25 … 20 … 29)
22. Texas A&M – 70.82  (23 … 27 … 38 … 29 … 30)
23. Southeastern Louisiana – 69.72  (24 … 37 … 36 … – … –)
24. Rice – 66.60  (22 … 23 .. 21 … 17 … 6)
25. Arizona – 65.67  (– … – … – … 41 … 41)
26. UC Irvine – 65.60  (31 … 28 … 13 … 5 … 5)
27. North Carolina – 63.46  (19 … 11 … 15 … 12 … 13)
28. Western Kentucky – 63.40  (37 … 41 … 32 … – … –)
29. Cal State Fullerton – 62.40  (36 … 42 … 23 … 4 … 3)
30. College of Charleston – 61.22  (– … 47 … 50 … – … –)
31. Kentucky –59.42  (28 … 19 … 22 … 32 … 38)
32. The Citadel – 57.37  (35 … – … – … – … –)
33. Auburn – 57.31  (– … 49 … – … – … –)
34. Washington State – 56.80  (30 … 29 … 35 … – … –)
35. Northwestern (La.) State – 56.05  (34 … 43 … – … – … –)
36. New Mexico – 56.01  (29 … 32 … 31 … –)
37. East Carolina – 54.43  (26 … 12 … 18 … 21 … 17)
38. Michigan State – 54.38  (40 … – … – … – … –)
39. Kansas State – 54.35  (33 … 35 … – … 45 … 36)
40. Southern Mississippi – 52.31  (39 … 38 … 44 … 26 … 26)
41. Wichita State – 51.79  (32 … 31 … 30 … 34 … 32)
42. VMI – 50.89  (42 … – … – … – … –)
43. Ohio State – 50.40  (41 … 26 … 24 … 25 … 24)
44. Oregon – 50.02  (45 … 45 … 40  … 30 … –)
45. Manhattan – 49.16  (– … – … – … – … –)
46. Mississippi State – 48.78  (43 … 44 … – … – … –)
47. Connecticut – 48.04  (38 … – … – … – … –)
48. Kansas – 47.53  (25 … – … 29 … 27 … 27)
49. UC Riverside – 47.19  (– … – … – … – … –)
50. Western Carolina – 46.84  (– …36 … – … – … –)

COMPOSITE NATIONAL RANKINGS (CNR) CRITERIA – CB360’s 100-point Composite National Rankings formula currently is centered around six national polls – USA Today/ESPN (coaches poll), NCBWA (writers), Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, Rivals and Ping!Baseball – along with four RPI-type ratings (Boyd Nation’s ISR and pseudo-RPI, plus Warren Nolan’s RPI and NRPI). Teams receive points based on their standings in each poll/rating (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.

The 10 core factors are averaged, with 40 points then added to each total to yield the 100-point benchmark.

The CNR top-50 currently combines a collection of 10 “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 NCAA-field predictions and “last-10-games” records – will be included in the CNR formula.