As the 2019 college baseball season heads into the final days of March, CB360’s exclusive Composite National Rankings (CNR) have expanded to now include 20 different elements in the CNR formula, an assortment of human polls and computerized metrics. The Pac-12 Conference again features the top-3 teams but in a new order: UCLA, Stanford & Oregon State … a week ago, Oregon State had occupied the No. 1 position (for the third straight week), followed by UCLA and Stanford (two weeks ago, the Cardinal were #2 and Bruins #3).
UCLA follows current #18 LSU (which sat atop the CNR the first three weeks of 2019) and Oregon State as the third team to occupy the No. 1 spot in the CNR this season. For the second straight week, the Pac-12 includes four of the CNR top-10 teams (also #8 Arizona State, down from #6).
(The full listing of the current Top–50 is included at the bottom of this page … also scroll down for assorted notes.)
Elsewhere in the CNR Top–10, Vanderbilt has jumped back into the top-5 (from #9 to #4). The SEC joins the Pac-12 in accounting for nearly half (4 teams) of the current CNR top-10, as Mississippi State held steady at #5 … Arkansas bumped up a spot to #6 … and #10 Texas A&M has made its debut among the top-10 teams (up from #17). The other teams in the current top-10: #7 North Carolina State (#10 a week ago) and #9 Texas Tech, which tumbled from #4 after being 6th or higher in the first six CNR listings of 2019.
After making its debut in the CNR top-10 a week ago, Auburn has slipped back a bit from #8 to #11.
Only five teams have been among the CNR top-10 all season: Oregon State (top-5 all season), Stanford, Texas Tech, UCLA and Vanderbilt. All told, 20 different teams have been in the CNR Top–10 at some point in the 2019 season: the current top-10, along with LSU, North Carolina, Florida, Ole Miss, Florida State, Arkansas, Louisville, Texas, Coastal Carolina & Auburn.
With [42] BYU among the four teams rotating into the current Top–50, the West Coast Conference now features three teams among the Top–50 (also #35 Pepperdine and #38 San Diego), only three weeks removed from having no teams among the Top–50.
The amazing depth of the Southeastern Conference can be seen in the fact that all 14 SEC teams have been among the CNR Top–50 at some point this season, with [49] Missouri making its Top–50 debut. Mizzou is one of 13 SEC teams among the current Top–50, while Kentucky was among the CNR Top–50 during the first two weeks of the 2019 season.
As always, be sure to join CB360’s 25,000-plus Twitter followers for regular updates throughout the 2019 season, via @CB360updates.
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Note that plenty of info. about the CNR can be found on the 2019 CNR Preseason release (including historical lists/archive; also listing of the CNR formula elements, etc.).
>> Update #2 | Update #3 | Update #4 | Update #5 | Update #6
(see below for the season’s 7th set of rankings)
… And here are CB360 Top–50 Scoreboard pages (the result listings also include games involving conference favorites for leagues outside the Top–50):
• Opening Week Top–50 Scoreboard (Feb. 15–18)
• Midweek #1 Top–50 Scoreboard (Feb. 19–20)
• Weekend #2 Top–50 Scoreboard (Feb. 21–25)
• Midweek #2 Top–50 Scoreboard (Feb. 26–28)
• Weekend #3 Top–50 Scoreboard (March 1–4)
• Weekend #4 Top–50 Scoreboard (March 8–10)
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• ENTERING & Exiting – Three teams are making their 2019 debut in the CNR Top–50: [42] BYU … [47] California … and [49] Missouri … while [34] Southern Miss. is back after two weeks outside the Top–50.
… And these four teams now find themselves on the outside of the CNR Top–50: [36] West Virginia … [39]. UCF… [46] Saint Mary’s … and [47] Arizona.
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• An Historic Pac-12 Trio? – Some combination of UCLA, Stanford and Oregon State has held down the top-3 (or top-4) spots in the CB360 Composite National Rankings for three straight weeks. Could this be the first year since 1988 with three Pac-12 teams in the College World Series (it also happened in 1976)? It should be noted that, for many years, the inherent NCAA Tournament structure likely precluded most conferences from featuring more than two CWS teams in any given season, because the earlier NCAA rounds were geographically based for many years.
> Here are the two historic seasons when three teams from the conference advanced to the CWS:
1976 – Arizona 5-1 (1st) … Arizona State 3-2 (semifinals) … Washington State 1-2
1988 – Stanford 5-1 (1st) … Arizona State 4-2 (2nd) … California 0-2
Over the past 65 yrs, there have been 31 CWS with multiple Pac-12 teams: 1954 Arizona/Oregon … 1955 Ariz./USC … ’56 Arizona/Washington St … ’58+’60+’63 USC/Ariz. … ’64 USC/Arizona St … ’65 ASU/WSU … ’66 USC/Ariz. … ’67 ASU/Stanford … ’69 ASU/UCLA … ‘ 70 USC/Ariz. … ’72+’73 USC/ASU … ’76 Ariz./ASU/WSU … ’78 USC/ASU .. ’80 Ariz./Cal … ’83 ASU/Stanford … ’85 Stanford/Ariz. … ’87 Stanford/ASU … ’88 Stanford/ASU/Cal … ’95 USC/Stanford … ’97 Stanford/UCLA … ’98 USC/ASU … 2000 Stanford/USC … ’01 Stanford/USC … ’05 ASU/Oregon St … ’07 ASU/Oregon St … ’10 ASU/UCLA … ’12 UCLA/Ariz. … ’13 UCLA/Oregon St.
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• These 15 teams were in the CB360 Preseason Top–50 but currently sit outside the Top–50:
(21) Cal State Fullerton
(24) Minnesota
(26) Duke
(29) Arizona
(30) Missouri State
(35) Houston
(37) Indiana
(39) Stetson
(41) Wake Forest
(42) Louisiana Tech
(44) St. John’s
(46) San Diego State
(47) Kentucky
(48) Tennessee Tech
(50) Florida Atlantic
… and only 32 teams have remained within the CNR Top–50 all season (current Top–50 teams Southern Miss., Georgia Tech & Indiana have been in-and-out of the Top–50 this season).
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CONFERENCE CALL – Here is the breakdown, by conference, of the current CNR top-50 (21 alone are from the SEC or ACC; and 13 of the top-25 are from those two leagues) … nearly 70% (34) are from the SEC/ACC/Big 12/Pac-12 … and 47 of the 50 (82%) are from these nine leagues: SEC/ACC/B12/P12/Big Ten/Big West/AAC/MVC/WCC … the current Top–50 includes only 12 conferences represented:
• 13 SEC teams (3 top-8; 4 top-10; 6 top-16; 9 top-25) – (4) Vanderbilt … (5) Mississippi State…(6) Arkansas…(10) Texas A&M…(11) Auburn…(12) Georgia…(18) LSU…(22) Florida…(23) Ole Miss…(27) Tennessee…(41) Alabama…(49) Missouri & (50) South Carolina
• 8 ACC teams (1 top-8; 3 top-16; 4 top-25) – (7) NC State…(14) Louisville…(16) North Carolina…(24) Clemson…(33) Florida State…(36) Georgia Tech…(45) Virginia Tech & (48) Miami
• 7 Pac-12 teams (3 top-4; 4 top-8; 5 top-25): – (1) UCLA…(2) Stanford…(3) Oregon State…(8) Arizona State…(25) Washington…(38) Oregon & (47) California.
• 6 Big 12 teams (1 top-10; 2 top-16; 3 top-25): – (9) Texas Tech…(15) Oklahoma…(19) Texas…(28) TCU…(31) Baylor & (32) Oklahoma State
• 4 Big Ten teams – (26) Illinois…(40) Indiana…(44) Nebraska & (46) Michigan
• 3 West Coast Conf. teams – (35) Pepperdine, (38) San Diego & (42) BYU
• 2 Big West teams – (17) UC Irvine & (20) UC Santa Barbara
• 2 Missouri Valley Conf. teams – (29) Dallas Baptist & (30) Indiana State &
• 2 American Athletic Conf. teams – (21) East Carolina & (37) Connecticut
• 1 each (3 teams) – Sun Belt (#13 Coastal Carolina) … Conference USA (#34 Southern Miss.) … Southland (#43 Sam Houston State).
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CB360’s CNR FORMULA currently includes the following 20 elements:
• National Coaches Poll (USA Today/ESPN; 43 total teams)
• National Collegiate Baseball Writers poll (50 total teams)
• DIBaseball.com top-25
• Baseball America top-25 poll
• Collegiate Baseball magazine top-30 rankings
• Perfect Game top-25 rankings
• Massey computerized rankings (top-60 teams)
• NCAA official RPI (top-60 teams)
• Boyd’s World Iterative Strength Ratings (top-60 teams)
• Warren Nolan ELO computerized rankings (top-60 teams)
• Donchess Inference computerized rankings (top-60 teams)
• Fleming TFS computerized rankings (top-60 teams)
• Kislanko computerized rankings (top-60 teams)
• Roundtable computerized rankings (top-60 teams)
• Moore Power Rankings, computerized (top-60 teams)
• Mangels computerized rankings (top-60 teams)
• DISportsNet computerized rankings (preseason top-60 teams)
• Bennett Rank computerized rankings (top-60 teams)
• Projected season strength of schedule (per Massey; bonus points, max. 1.0)
• Assorted Conference preseason coaches polls (bonus points, max. 1.0):
> SEC … ACC … Pac-12 … Big 12 … Big Ten … AAC … C-USA …
Big West … MVC … Sun Belt … A-Sun … Southland … Big East …
Mt. West … Ohio Valley … CAA … WCC
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>> CB360 Composite Top-50 Rankings #7 (March 28, 2019)
(rank) Team – voting pts (previous weeks)
1. UCLA – 95.86 (2 … 4 … 3 … 4 … 5 … #6 in 2019 preseason CNR)
2. Stanford – 93.94 (3 … 2 … 2 … 7 … 8 … 8)
3. Oregon State – 93.15 (1 … 1 … 1 … 5 … 2 … 2)
4. Vanderbilt – 91.01 (9 … 5 … 7 … 3 … 3 … 3)
5. Mississippi State – 90.76 (5 … 7 … 4 … 9 … 12 … 13)
6. Arkansas – 90.51 (7 … 12 … 15 … 11 … 10 … 11)
7. North Carolina State – 89.02 (10 … 9 … 13 … 21 … 24 … 25)
8. Arizona State – 87.39 (6 … 17 … 30 … 40 … 49)
9. Texas Tech – 87.30 (4 … 3 … 5 … 2 … 6 … 4)
10. Texas A&M – 84.71 (17 … 27 … 25 … 28 … 26 … 28)
11. Auburn – 83.80 (8 … 15 … 20 … 22 … 20 … 15)
12. Georgia – 83.29 (13 … 22 … 23 … 18 … 14 … 14)
13. Coastal Carolina – 81.98 (11 … 8 … 12 … 16 … 19 … 22)
14. Louisville – 76.75 (12 … 18 … 18 … 17 … 13 … 9)
15. Oklahoma – 75.96 (20 … 31 … 32 … 46 … 49 … –)
16. North Carolina – 75.40 (19 … 17 … 6 … 6 … 4 … 7)
17. UC Irvine – 74.49 (21 … 33 … 29 … 36 … 34 … 36)
18. LSU – 74.34 (14 … 20 … 10 … 1 … 1 … 1)
19. Texas – 73.16 (16 … 19 … 9 … 20 … 15 … 18)
20. UC Santa Barbara – 70.12 (22 … 23 … 44 … – … – … –)
21. East Carolina – 69.24 (29 … 32 … 34 … 26 … 21 … 16)
22. Florida – 68.99 (15 … 11 … 11 … 10 … 7 … 5)
23. Mississippi – 68.83 (18 … 14 … 14 … 8 … 11 … 10)
24. Clemson – 68.00 (24 … 10 … 21 … 14 … 17 … 19)
25. Washington – 67.87 (27 … 44 … 28 … 38 … 36 … 33)
25. Illinois – 67.87 (28 … 39 … 36 … 27 … 43 … 45)
27. Tennessee – 67.31 (23 … 13 … 16 … 45 … – … –)
28. TCU – 66.03 (33 … 37 … 27 … 13 … 16 … 20)
29. Dallas Baptist – 64.58 (39 … 28 … 37 … 41 … 31 … 40)
30. Indiana State – 62.32 (26 … 24 … 38 … – … – … –)
31. Baylor – 61.98 (42 … 40 … 22 … 15 … 18 … 17)
32. Oklahoma State – 60.62 (37 … 29 … 35 … 24 … 28 … 27)
33. Florida State – 59.83 (25 … 16 … 8 … 12 … 9 … 12)
34. Southern Mississippi – 59.79 (– … – … 47 … 30 … 23 … 23)
35. Pepperdine – 59.54 (38 … 43 … – … – … – … –)
36. Georgia Tech – 58.90 (44 … – … 48 … 44 … 32 … 32)
37. Connecticut – 56.83 (41 … 35 … 46 … 37 … 30 … 34)
38. San Diego – 56.81 (32 … 30 … – … – … – … –)
39. Oregon – 56.16 (31 … 21 … 31 … 40 … – … –)
40. Indiana – 56.01 (48 … – … 49 … – … 38 … 37)
41. Alabama – 51.60 (43 … 38 … – … – … – … –)
42. BYU – 50.66 (– … – … – … – … – … –)
43. Sam Houston State – 49.38 (50 … 45 … 43 … 42 … 46 … 43)
44. Nebraska – 49.36 (45 … – … – … – … – … –)
45. Virginia Tech – 48.07 (34 … 34 … – … – … – … –)
46. Michigan – 46.67 (35 … 36 … 24 … 25 … 29 … 31)
47. California – 46.61 (– … – … – … – … – … –)
48. Miami – 46.24 (40 … 26 … 33 … – … 39 … –)
49. Missouri – 45.88 (– … – … – … – … – … –)
50. South Carolina – 45.37 (44 … 25 … 19 … 29 … 44 … 38)
– next five: West Virginia, Gonzaga, New Mexico State, Texas State & Cal State Fullerton
> Dropped Out of Top-50 After Week–6:
36. West Virginia (36 … – … – … – … – … –)
39. UCF (39 … – … – … – … – … –)
46. Saint Mary’s (46 … – … – … – … – … –)
47. Arizona (47 … – … 40 … 32 … 27 … 29)
> Dropped Out of Top-50 After Week–5:
41. Cal State Fullerton – 51.73 (41 … 30 … 19 … 22 … 21)
42. Duke – 50.97 (42 … 26 … 23 … 25 … 26)
46. Wright State – 49.12 (46 … – … – … – … –)
47. Penn – 49.06 ( 47 … – … – … – … –)
48. Louisiana Tech – 48.65 (48 … 39 … 33 … 35 … 42)
49. New Mexico State – 48.31 (49 … 41 … – … – … –)
50. Liberty – 47.93 (50 … – … – … – … –)
> Dropped Out of Top-50 After Week–4:
40. Arizona – 52.94 (40 … 32 … 27 … 29) – returned to Top–50 (now back out again)
42. Texas State – 52.70 (42 … – … – … –)
45. Tulane – 50.53 (45 … – … – … –)
47. Southern Mississippi – 48.93 (47 … 30 … 23 … 23) – has returned to Top–50
48. Georgia Tech – 48.79 (48 … 44 … 32 … 32) – has returned to Top–50
t-49. Indiana – 48.34 (49 … – … 38… 37) – has returned to Top–50
t-49. Wake Forest – 48.34 (50 … 35 … 35 … 37 … 41)
> Dropped Out of Top-50 After Week–3:
34. Houston – 56.02 (34 … 42 … 35)
39. Minnesota – 54.66 (39 … 24)
43. San Diego State – 51.86 (43 … – … 46)
47. South Alabama – 49.85 (47 … – … –)
48. Missouri State – 49.68 (48 … 41 … 30)
49. St. John’s – 48.97 (49 … 45 … 44)
50. Stetson – 48.91 (50 … 47 … 39)
> Dropped Out of Top-50 After Week–2:
38. Indiana – 53.45 (38 … 37) – has returned to Top–50 (twice)
39. Miami – 53.10 (39 … –) – has returned to current Top–50
48. Kentucky – 49.47 (48 … 47)
49. Saint Mary’s – 49.40 (50 … –) – returned to Top–50 (now back out again)
> Dropped Out of Top-50 After Opening Week:
46. San Diego State – 47.35 (46) – returned to Top–50 (now back out again)
48. Tennessee Tech – 49.51 (48)
50. Florida Atlantic – 47.29 (50)