Kansas Rises, Florida State and Virginia Fall in College Baseball Week 11 Top 25 Update
Another week of college baseball is in the books as the postseason picture is starting to take shape with just a few more weeks of regular season baseball remaining on the schedule. A lot of big series took place over the weekend, and some big moves were made in this week’s top 25 update, so let’s jump in:
Within the top eight, there was surprisingly no movement despite some highly-ranked match-ups having taken place over the weekend. Within the top eight, #5 Georgia went on the road to #22 (previously ranked #19) Ole Miss and took two of three, #7 Auburn took two of three at home against #18 (previously ranked #17) Oklahoma, and #8 Texas A&M went on the road to #24 (previously ranked #21) Florida where they also took two of three.
#1 UCLA did drop their series finale to Sacramento State, but finish the week 3-1, so once again there’s no reason to entertain the idea of knocking them off. Even if Sacramento State had pulled off the win in the opener that was taken from them via a funky ground-ball that led to a UCLA walk-off, I still would have had a hard time giving someone else the #1 nod given UCLA’s extensive track record to this point. #2 Texas got a short week due to a mid-week rain-out, but went on the road to take two of three from Vanderbilt. #3 North Carolina went 3-1 on the week, beating a potential tournament team in High Point before taking two of three from Duke over the weekend. #4 Georgia Tech had arguably the best week, beating #5 Georgia via run-rule in the mid-week and then sweeping Wake Forest at home. Despite posting a super impressive week, there was no room for them to move up because of the log jam at the top. No power-four team that wins their weekend against a conference opponent ever moves down except in some rare cases, and there wasn’t quite enough in either the performance of Georgia Tech or the two teams above them to warrant an exception. Georgia Tech’s series with Wake Forest could have gone any direction as well when you look under the hood - Wake Forest led in all three games, two of which by multiple runs. Had it been a far more convincing sweep, there might be a conversation there to be had.
Oregon State sticks at #6 after sweeping Hawaii, while their in-state rivals #9 Oregon climbed two spots after beating Oregon State in their mid-week and sweeping Penn State. Oregon was granted the luxury of making their first appearance inside of the top ten after #19 (previously ranked #9) Florida State was the highest ranked team to fall, and took the biggest hit on the ranking in this week’s update. They beat North Florida in their mid-week, but then went on the road to Stanford where they were swept by a team that came into the series 8-11 in the ACC and 18-19 overall. #10 Coastal Carolina had the chance to move up to that #9 spot, but ended up going 2-2 on the week with a mid-week loss to UNC Wilmington, and a loss to Texas State in their series finale. Although they win their weekend, my basic rule of thumb is that a mid-major really needs to go 3-1 on the week to warrant a move up the ranking unless they played a power-four school or a top ranked mid-major. Had Texas State not slid the last couple of weeks, that potentially could have applied to Coastal Carolina, however, they stick at #10 in consecutive updates.
Florida State wasn’t the only team to take a big hit as #20 Virginia had a pretty bad showing over the weekend as well as they fall eight spots from #12. They did beat a solid Liberty team with tournament aspirations in the mid-week, but went on the road to newly ranked #25 Pitt where they got swept in fairly convincing fashion. Their win on the week was a little better than Florida State’s, and their series loss doesn’t look as bad with Pitt now being ranked, so Virginia falls eight spots compared to Florida State’s ten.
Benefiting from the bad weeks of the two ACC teams that got swept were #11 Mississippi State, #12 Nebraska, #13 USC, and #14 Southern Miss. Mississippi State had one of the best performances this week, going 4-0 with a sweep at home over LSU, but they only managed to climb three spots considering all the teams in front of them that took care of business. Nebraska went 2-2, losing to #15 Kansas on the road in their mid-week, but taking two of three on the road in Illinois which is why they managed to climb a few spots. #13 USC had a strong bounce-back week after an ugly 0-4 performance last week as they beat a solid Cal State Fullerton team on the road and then swept a Purdue team at home that was considered for a top 25 spot last week. Southern Miss made a four spot climb compared to the three spot climbs by the three aforementioned teams, due to Florida State and Virginia’s fall, as well as #16 West Virginia and #18 Oklahoma taking hits as well. They went 3-1 on the week including a series win on the road over a solid South Alabama team.
#15 Kansas was the biggest riser of the week as they remain one of the hottest teams in the nation. They picked up a ranked win over #12 Nebraska in their mid-week and then went on the road and swept Kansas State. Coming into the week ranked #24, six teams fell below them while their strong performance warranted them jumping above #17 Boston College and #21 Arkansas despite both of those teams moving up as well. #16 West Virginia takes a three spot fall after a tough week that included a series loss on the road at Cincinnati and losing 23-1 to Pitt at home in their mid-week. #18 Oklahoma falls just one spot after going 2-2 on the week, but dropping two of three on the road to #7 Auburn. #17 Boston College also went 2-2 on the week, but with a series win on the road at Notre Dame and benefit from Florida State, Virginia, and #22 Ole Miss taking hits as they climb three spots.
#21 Arkansas put together a nice week going 3-1 with a win over tournament hopeful Missouri State, and a series win on the road at Missouri. They do only climb one spot due to the fact they are in that same group alongside Florida and Alabama as teams that get hurt by their inconsistency week to week. #22 Ole Miss does drop below them after going 2-2 on the week but dropping two of three to #5 Georgia at home. #24 Florida is still holding on to their standing as a top 25 team for dear life after they not only dropped two of three at home to #8 Texas A&M, but also dropped their mid-week at home to Jacksonville for the second time this year. Their week ended up being pretty comparable to West Virginia who dropped three spots, so a three spot fall felt right for Florida.
The two newcomers in this week’s update is #23 Arizona State and #25 Pitt. Surprisingly enough, it’s Arizona State’s debut on the top 25 despite having hung around right outside of it all season. They went 3-1 on the week which included a sweep of Baylor, and now at 31-14 overall and 14-7 in the Big 12, it didn’t feel right leaving them out again. #25 Pitt wasn’t even on last week’s bubble, but they might have had the best week of anyone. They come away 4-0 on the week, all of which were ranked wins with their mid-week win over #16 West Virginia and a sweep at home over #20 Virginia. Aside from their 23-1 win over West Virginia, their sweep of Virginia included an 11-0 win in the second game of the series.
The two teams to fall off the top 25 were Alabama and UC Santa Barbara. Alabama had a pretty similar week to Florida, dropping their mid-week at home to UAB and then losing two of three on the road to Tennessee. Coming into the week at #23, they were already too close to falling out to stay in after that performance. For UC Santa Barbara who debuted in the top 25 at #25 last week, they were unable to hold on their standing as a ranked team in consecutive weeks as they go 2-2 on the week with a mid-week win on the road over a strong California Baptist team, but went on to drop two of three at home to Cal State Fullerton.
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