CollegeBaseball360.com again will be the home of the Composite National Rankings (CNR) during the 2010 season.  The preseason CNR – encompassing five national polls and a projected strength of schedule – is listed below, with the top-10 teams including: Texas, LSU, Cal State Fullerton, Virginia, UC Irvine, Rice, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Florida and Arizona State.

The CNR again is based on a 100-point scale. Teams in the five national polls – USA Today/ESPN (coaches poll), NCBWA (writers), Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, and Rivals – receive points based on their standings in each poll (60 pts for #1, 59 for #2, etc.). For polls involving voting points (coaches and CB), 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).

The five CNR totals from the national polls are averaged (max. of 60) and 37 is added to each total. Finally, a projected strength-of-schedule bonus is added (max of 3 CNR pts) to produce the 100-point scale.

The CNR top-50 combines several groups of “experts” to provide a preseason projection of the 2010 NCAA Championship field (50 teams, plus 14 others from lower-rated automatic-bid conferences – those teams will be projected in next week’s CNR). Later in the season, other factors – such as various power rankings, NCAA-field predictions and last-10-games records – will be included in the CNR formula.

The 16 conferences represented in the CNR top-50 include nine from the Southeastern Conference (two top-10; six top-25): #2 LSU, #9 Florida, #15 Arkansas, #20 South Carolina, #22 Mississippi, #23 Georgia, #31 Vanderbilt, #34 Alabama and #38 Kentucky. There also are eight from the Big 12 Conference (only one in top-25) – #1 Texas, #27 Kansas, #28 Oklahoma, #30 Texas A&M, #36 Kansas State, #39 Missouri, #42 Oklahoma State and #43 Nebraska – and seven from the Atlantic Coast Conference (three top-10; six top-25): #4 Virginia, #7 Florida State, #8 Georgia Tech, #12 Clemson, #13 North Carolina, #14 Miami and #48 Boston College.

Nearly half of the teams (24 of 50) in the CNR top-50 come from the SEC, Big 12 and ACC, followed by five from the Pacific-10 Conference (one top-10; three top-25) – #10 Arizona State, #16 Oregon State, #25 UCLA, #29 Stanford and #41 Arizona – and two other west-coast leagues: four Big West Conference teams (# 3 Cal State Fullerton, #5 UC Irvine, #37 Long Beach State and #40 Cal Poly) and the West Coast Conference trio of #21 San Diego, #35 Pepperdine and #44 Gonzaga).

Three other leagues have multiple teams in the CNR: Conference USA (#6 Rice, #17 East Carolina, #26 Southern Mississippi), the Big Ten (#24 Ohio State, #33 Minnesota,) and the Atlantic Sun (#48 Florida Gulf Coast, #50 Jacksonville). Seven conferences have single representatives in the CNR top-50: the Mountain West (#11 TCU), Big South (#18 Coastal Carolina), BIG EAST (#19 Louisville), Missouri Valley (#32 Wichita State), the Summit League (#44 Oral Roberts), Sunbelt (#46 Middle Tennessee) and Western Athletic (#47 Fresno State).

College Baseball 2010 Composite National Rankings (CNR)

courtesy of CollegeBaseball360.com (#1; Feb. 19.)

1. Texas – 98.50
2. LSU – 96.11
3. Cal State Fullerton – 95.14
4. Virginia – 94.04
5. UC Irvine – 89.68
6. Rice – 89.33
7. Florida State – 88.89
8. Georgia Tech – 88.17
9. Florida – 87.94
10. Arizona State – 87.66
11. TCU – 80.50
12. Clemson – 80.16
13. North Carolina – 79.57
14. Miami (FL) – 79.34
15. Arkansas  – 78.17
16. Oregon State – 77.90
17. East Carolina – 76.51
18. Coastal Carolina – 76.43
19. Louisville – 76.05
20. South Carolina – 72.92
21. San Diego – 72.83
22. Mississippi – 72.68
23. Georgia – 68.34
24. Ohio State – 63.79

25. UCLA – 63.43
26. Southern Mississippi – 61.94
27. Kansas – 56.78
28. Oklahoma – 54.04
29. Stanford – 53.75
30. Texas A&M – 52.96
31. Vanderbilt – 50.75
32. Wichita State – 49.83
33. Minnesota – 48.92
34. Alabama – 44.37
35. Pepperdine – 44.36
36. Kansas State – 42.79
37. Long Beach State – 39.54
38. Kentucky – 38.79
39. Missouri – 38.73
40. Cal Poly – 38.02
41. Arizona – 37.97
42. Oklahoma State – 37.88
43. Nebraska – 37.44
44. Oral Roberts – 37.27
Gonzaga – 37.27
46. Middle Tennessee – 37.20
47. Fresno State – 37.14
48. Florida Gulf Coast – 37.08

Boston College – 37.08

50. Jacksonville – 37.02