Virginia Moves Up, While LSU Drops Down This Week

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The Virginia Cavaliers have taken over the #1 spot in the CB360 Composite National Rankings, following a series win at Florida State (which dropped from #4 to #7 in the CNR). UCLA – thanks to its top-ranked RPI numbers – has jumped from #8 to #2, with similar moves by Arizona State (#6 to #3) and Clemson (#9 to #5). LSU tumbled from the #1 to #6 position, while current #4 Texas and #8 Louisville both slipped back one spot. TCU (#13 to #9) has returned to the top-10 and Oregon State (#14 to #10) also now finds itself in the top-10, with Coastal Carolina (#5 to #14) and Florida (#10 to #11) both sliding into the second-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 17)

SEC (9) – #6 LSU, #11 Florida, #13 Arkansas, #17 Vanderbilt, #18 Mississippi, #21 Alabama, #28 Kentucky, #27 South Carolina, #43 Mississippi State
ACC  (7) – #1 Virginia, #5 Clemson, #7 Florida St., #12 Georgia Tech, #19 North Carolina, #20 Miami, #48 N.C. St.
Pacific-10 (6) – #2 UCLAm #3 Arizona St., #10 Oregon St., #16 Stanford, #30 Washington St., #45 Oregon
Big 12 (5) – #4 Texas, #15 Oklahoma, #23 Texas A&M, #25 Kansas and #33 Kansas St.
BIG EAST (3) –  #8 Louisville, #38 UConn & #46 Villanova
Big South (3) – #14 Coastal Carolina, #42 VMI & #44 Liberty
Conference USA (3) – #22 Rice, #26 East Carolina and #39 Southern Mississippi
2 Each – Big Ten (#40 Michigan St. & #26 Ohio St.) … Big West (#31 UC Irvine & #36 Cal State Fullerton) … Mountain West (#9 TCU & #29 New Mexico) … Southern (#34 Northwestern St. & #35 Citadel) … Southland (#24 Southeast Louisiana & #47 Texas St.) … Sunberlt (#37 Western Kentucky & #49 Louisiana-Lafayette)
1 Each – Missouri Valley (#32 Wichita St.)  … Western Athletic (#50 Hawaii)

BIGGEST JUMPS IN THE CNR – Southeastern Louisiana (#37 to #24) … Northwestern (La.) State (#43 to #34)
BIGGEST DROPS IN THE CNR – Ohio State (#26 to #41) … North Carolina State (#33 to #48) … East Carolina (#12 to #26) … Hawaii (#39 to #50) … Kentucky (#19 to #28) … North Carolina (#11 to #19)   
NEWCOMERS TO THE CNR – #25 Kansas … #35 The Citadel … #38 Connecticut … #40 Michigan State … #42 VMI … #46 Villanova … #47 Texas State … #49 Louisiana-Lafayette
DROPPED OUT OF THE TOP-50 – #30 Appalachian State  … #34 St. John’s … #36 Western Carolina … #40 Washington … #47 College of Charleston  … #48 Virginia Tech … #49 Auburn … #50 Fairfield

College Baseball 2010 Composite National Rankings #5 (CNR)
courtesy of CollegeBaseball360.com; March 17, 2010
(ranks in parentheses indicate March 10 rank … March 3 … Feb. 24 … preseason)
1. Virginia – 95.63  (2 … 2 … 3 … 4)
2. UCLA – 93.48  (8 … 17 … 24 … 25)
3. Arizona State – 93.02  (6 … 6 … 9 … 10)
4. Texas – 91.25  (3 … 3 … 2 … 1)
5. Clemson – 90.36  (9 … 9 … 11 … 12)
6. LSU – 89.24  (1 … 1 … 1 … 2
7. Florida State – 89.09  (4 … 4 … 6 … 7)
8. Louisville – 88.79  (7 … 11 … 14 … 19)
9. TCU – 87.74  (13 … 8 … 10 … 11)
10. Oregon State – 84.90  (14 … 16 … 15 … 16)
11. Florida – 84.12  (10 … 5 … 8 … 9)
12. Georgia Tech – 81.36  (17 … 7 … 7 … 8 )
13. Arkansas  – 81.09  (16 … 14 … 16 … 15)
14. Coastal Carolina – 80.81  (5 … 10 … 18 … 18)
15. Oklahoma – 79.21  (20 … 26 … 28 … 28)
16. Stanford – 75.40  (22 … 25 … 20 … 29)
17. Vanderbilt – 73.83  (15 … 28 … 33 … 31)
18. Mississippi – 73.37  (18 … 20 … 23 … 22)
19. North Carolina – 73.17  (11 … 15 … 12 … 13)
20. Miami (FL) – 72.83  (21 … 12 … 13 … 14)
21. Alabama – 72.63  (25 … 33 … 39 … 34)
22. Rice – 72.07  (23 .. 21 … 17 … 6)
23. Texas A&M – 69.96  (27 … 38 … 29 … 30)
24. Southeastern Louisiana – 67.88  (37 … 36 … – … –)
25. Kansas – 67.33  (– … 29 … 27 … 27)
26. East Carolina – 67.13  (12 … 18 … 21 … 17)
27. South Carolina – 65.24  (24 … 19 … 19 … 20)
28. Kentucky –64.82  (19 … 22 … 32 … 38)
29. New Mexico – 64.42  (32 … 31 … –)
30. Washington State – 62.76  (29 … 35 … – … –)
31. UC Irvine – 60.37  (28 … 13 … 5 … 5)
32. Wichita State – 55.81  (31 … 30 … 34 … 32)
33. Kansas State – 55.20  (35 … – … 45 … 36)
34. Northwestern (La.) State – 54.58  (43 … – … – … –)
35. The Citadel – 54.44  (– … – … – … –)
36. Cal State Fullerton – 53.96  (42 … 23 … 4 … 3)
37. Western Kentucky – 52.18  (41 … 32 … – … –)
38. Connecticut – 51.88  (– … – … – … –)
39. Southern Mississippi – 51.10  (38 … 44 … 26 … 26)
40. Michigan State – 49.75  (– … – … – … –)
41. Ohio State – 63.11  (26 … 24 … 25 … 24)
42. VMI – 49.14  (– … – … – … –)
43. Mississippi State – 48.48  (44 … – … – … –)
44. Liberty  – 48.27  (46 … 49 – … –)
45. Oregon – 48.11  (45 … 40  … 30 … –)
46. Villanova – 48.003  (– … – … – … –)
47. Texas State – 47.88  (– … – … – … –)
48. North Carolina State – 47.72  (33 … 39 … – … –)
49. Louisiana-Lafayette  – 47.08 (– … – … – … –)
50. Hawaii – 46.87  (39 … – … – … –)

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.