Coastal Cracks CNR Top-10 …

Coastal Carolina – which pushed its winning streak to 10 games with a win over North Carolina on April 14 – has moved into the top-10 of CB360’s exclusive Compositional National Rankings. This all-inclusive ranking formula now includes 14 different “ingredients:” six national polls (coaches, writers, BA, CB, Rivals, & Ping), five RPI-type calcuations (NCAA RPI, Boyds World Pseudo-RPI & ISR, W-Nolan RPI & NRPI) and three NCAA Tournament field projections (BA, SE-Baseball, & Rivals).   (front-page photo courtesy of Coastal Carolina)

(Note – scroll to end of this release for detailed description of the CNR, including direct links to all 14 criteria).

The top-3 teams in the CNR (Arizona State, UCLA and Virginia) remain in their respective CNR positions, followed by #4 Arkansas (up from #6) and #5 Texas (which was #8 the previous week). Current #7 Florida and #8 Florida State each moved up two spots from the previous week, while Georgia Tech slipped back from #4 to #6 and former #7 LSU dropped to the bottom of the top-10. Louisville (#5 to #11) fell outside the top-10, with Coastal Carolina moving up from 13th to #9.

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

CNR TOP-50 CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN (April 14)

SEC (9 … 3 top-10, 7 top-25) – #4 Arkansas, #7 Florida, #10 LSU, #12 South Carolina, #20 Mississippi, #21 Vanderbilt, #24 Auburn, #26 Alabama, #40 Kentucky
Pacific-10 (8 … 2 top-10, 5 top-25) – #1 Arizona St., #2 UCLA, #14 Oregon St., #22 California, #23 Arizona, #31 Oregon, #44 Washington St., #45 Stanford
ACC  (7 … 3 top-10, 6 top-25) – #3 Virginia, #6 Georgia Tech, #8 Florida St., #15 Miami, #16 Clemson, #25 Virginia Tech, #36 North Carolina
Big 12 (6 … 1 top-10, 2 top-25) – #5 Texas, #19 Oklahoma, #27 Kansas St., #32 Texas A&M, #38 Baylor, #41 Kansas
BIG EAST (3) – #5 Louisville, #30 Connecticut, #43 Pittsburgh
Big West (3) – #17 Cal State Fullerton, #33 UC Irvine,  #50 Long Beach State
Southern (3) – #29 Citadel, #39 College of Charleston, #47 Western Carolina,
2 Each – Big South (#9 Coastal Carolina & #42 VMI) … Mountain West (#13 TCU & #34 New Mexico) … Southland (#35 Southeast Louisiana & #37 Texas St.) … Sunbelt (#18 Western Kentucky, #49 South Alabama)
1 Each – Big Ten (#48 Michigan St.) … Conference USA (#28 Rice) … West Coast (#46 San Diego)

BIGGEST JUMPS IN THE CNR – Virginia Tech (#43 to #25) … Auburn (#36 to #24) … California (#31 to #22) … Connecticut (#39 to #30) … Kentucky (#48 to #40) … Cal State Fullerton (#23 to #17)
BIGGEST DROPS IN THE CNR – Stanford (#24 to #45) … Michigan State (#35 to #48) … UC  Irvine (#21 to #33) … Coll. of Charleston (#28 to #39) … SE Louiaiana (#27 to #35) … Louisville (#5 to #11) … Texas A&M (#26 to #32)
NEWCOMERS/RETURNERS TO THE CNR – #38 Baylor … #43 Pittsburgh … #44 Washington State … #49 South Alabama  (Pitt and WSU previously were in the CNR this season)
DROPPED OUT OF THE TOP-50 – 40. North Carolina State … #45 Tulane … #46 Wichita State … #47 Northwestern (La.) State

College Baseball 2010 Composite National Rankings #9 (CNR)
courtesy of CollegeBaseball360.com; April  14, 2010
(ranks in parentheses indicate April 7 rank … March 31 … 3/24 … 3/17 … 3/10 … 3/3 … Feb. 24 … preseason)
1. Arizona State – 98.89  ( 1… 1 … 1 … 3 … 6 … 6 … 9 … 10)
2. UCLA – 97.86  (2 … 2 … 3 … 2 … 8 … 17 … 24 … 25)
3. Virginia – 95.98  (3 … 3 … 2 … 1 … 2 … 2 … 3 … 4)
4. Arkansas  – 94.87  (6 … 8 .. 18 … 13 … 16 … 14 … 16 … 15)
5. Texas – 94.40  (8 … 10 … 10 … 4 … 3 … 3 … 2 … 1)
6. Georgia Tech – 91.34  (4 … 5 … 14 … 12 … 17 … 7 … 7 … 8 )
7. Florida – 90.63  (9 … 9 … 6 … 11 … 10 … 5 … 8 … 9)
8. Florida State – 90.21  (10 … 4 … 5 … 7 … 4 … 4 … 6 … 7)
9. Coastal Carolina – 90.13  (13 … 13 … 11 … 14 … 5 … 10 … 18 … 18)
10. LSU – 89.93  (7 … 6 … 7 … 6 … 1 … 1 … 1 … 2)
11. Louisville – 89.52  (5 … 7 … 8 … 8 … 7 … 11 … 14 … 19)
12. South Carolina – 85.52  (15 … 19 … 20 … 27 … 24 … 19 … 19 … 20)
13. TCU – 84.91  (17 … 14 … 13 … 9 … 13 … 8 … 10 … 11)
14. Oregon State – 84.63  (11 … 15 … 9 … 10 … 14 … 16 … 15 … 16)
15. Miami (FL) – 84.26  (14 … 17 … 17 … 20 … 21 … 12 … 13 … 14)
16. Clemson – 83.82  (12 … 11 … 4 … 5 … 9 … 9 … 11 … 12)
17. Cal State Fullerton – 81.77  (23 … 30 … 29 … 36 … 42 … 23 … 4 … 3)
18. Western Kentucky – 79.98  (19 … 20 … 28 … 37 … 41 … 32 … – … –)
19. Oklahoma – 78.92  (20 … 16 … 16 … 15 … 20 … 26 … 28 … 28)
20. Mississippi – 74.77  (16 … 12 … 15 … 18 … 18 … 20 … 23 … 22)
21. Vanderbilt – 73.81  (18 … 18 … 19 … 17 … 15 … 28 … 33 … 31)
22. California – 73.50  (31 … x … x … x … 44 … x … x … x)
23. Arizona – 70.76  (25 … 21 … 25 … – … – … – … 41 … 41)
24. Auburn – 67.62  (36 … 31 … 33 … – … 49 … – … – … –)
25. Virginia Tech – 64.08  (43 … x … x … x … 48 … x … x … x)
26. Alabama – 62.03  (22 … 25 … 12 … 21 … 25 … 33 … 39 … 34)
27. Kansas State – 61.98  (29 … 24 … 39 … 33 … 35 … – … 45 … 36)
28. Rice – 61.63  (30 … 43 … 24 … 22 … 23 .. 21 … 17 … 6)
29. The Citadel – 60.77  (33 … 32 … 27 … 32 … 35 … – … – … –)
30. Connecticut – 60.73  (39 … 38 .. .47 … 38 … – … – … – … –)
31. Oregon – 60.28  (34 … 34 … 44 … 45 … 45 … 40  … 30 … –)
32. Texas A&M – 59.73  (26 … 22 … 22 … 23 … 27 … 38 … 29 … 30)
33. UC Irvine – 59.01  (21 … 28 … 26 … 31 … 28 … 13 … 5 … 5)
34. New Mexico – 58.82  (37 … 42 … 36 … 29 … 32 … 31 … 31 … –)
35. Southeastern Louisiana – 57.11  (27 … 26 … 23 .. .24 … 37 … 36 … – … –)
36. North Carolina – 56.82  (32 … 29  … 27 … 19 … 11 … 15 … 12 … 13)
37. Texas State – 56.34  (42 … 39 … – … 47 … – … – … – … –)
38. Baylor –55.51  (x … x … x … x … x … x … x … x)
39. College of Charleston – 54.50  (28 … 33 … 30 … – … 47 … 50 … – … –)
40. Kentucky –54.47  (48 … 49 … 31 … 28 … 19 … 22 … 32 … 38)
41. Kansas – 55.52  (41 … 45 … 48 … 25 … – … 29 … 27 … 27)
42. VMI – 53.08  (38 … 41 … 42 … 42 … – … – … – … –)
43. Pittsburgh – 52.46  (x … 35 … x … x … x … x … x … x)
44. Washington State – 52.03  (x … 40 … 34 … 30 … 29 … 35 … x … x)
45. Stanford – 51.63 (24 … 23 … 21 … 16 … 22 … 25 … 20 … 29)
46. San Diego – 51.07  (49 … x … x … x … x … 37 … 22 … 21)
47. Western Carolina – 50.03  (44 … 37 … 50 … – …36 … – … – … –)
48. Michigan State – 50.00  (35 … 32 … 38 … 40 … – … – … – … –)
49. South Alabama – 47.90  (x … x … x … x … x … x … x … x)
50. Long Beach State – 47.86  (50 … 50 … – … – … – … – … 36 … 37)

COMPOSITE NATIONAL RANKINGS (CNR) CRITERIA: CB360’s 100-point Composite National Rankings formula currently is centered around 14 core ingredients – combining a diverse collection of “experts” (ranging from coaches, media, computer calculations and projections) – to help provide a preview of teams that could be in the running for 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  “last-10-games” records – will be included in the CNR formula, with CollegeBaseball360 set to begin generating its own projection of the NCAA field (based on the CNR formula).

Here’s the breakdown of the current “14-ingredient” CNR formula (three main areas):

• Six National Polls/Rankings – USA Today/ESPN (coaches poll) … NCBWA (writers) … Baseball America … Collegiate Baseball …  Rivals and Ping!Baseball

• Five RPI-Type Ratings: Official NCAA RPI … Boyds World ISR and Pseudo-RPI … and Warren Nolan’s RPI and NRPI

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

Here are links to the 14 criteria used in the CNR:
• National Coaches Poll (USA Today/ESPN)
• National Collegiate Baseball Writers poll
• Baseball America poll
• Colllegiate Baseball magazine rankings
• Rivals.com rankings
• Ping!Baseball.com rankings
• Official CAA RPI
• Boyds World Pseudo-RPI
• Boyds World Iterative Strength Ratings
• Warren Nolan RPI
• Warren Nolan N-RPI
• Baseball America NCAA field projection
• SE Baseball NCAA field projection
• Rivals NCAA field projection