FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
DALLAS – Arkansas has been selected as pre-2013 No. 1 nationally in the 16th annual 2013 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Division I preseason poll.
Coach Dave Van Horn’s Razorbacks are coming off a third-place finish behind champion Arizona and 2010 and ’11 NCAA winner South Carolina in the 2012 NCAA World Series and final record of 46-22. This is the first preseason No. 1 ranking for the Razorbacks, and the Southeastern Conference power also is No. 1 in the Collegiate Baseball and USA Today Coaches pre-2013 surveys.
Arizona rolled through the NCAA Regional, Super Regional and CWS tourneys with a 10-0 record and is No. 14 in the initial NCBWA ratings.
The poll voters come from 45 college baseball writers and related media persons from throughout the nation. After a preseason Top 35 listing, the remainder of the polls will feature a national Top 30 beginning with the Feb. 18 NCBWA DI survey.
Previous No. 1 entries on the preseason NCBWA rankings have been LSU in the 1998, 2001 and 2009 polls, Southern California (1999), Miami (Fla.) (2000), Stanford (2002), Texas (2003, 06, 10), Rice (2004, 07), Cal State Fullerton (2005), Arizona State (2008), North Carolina (2009), TCU (2011), and Florida (2012).
Other 2012 NCAA World Series entrants in the initial ’13 poll are UCLA No. 5, South Carolina No. 6, Florida State No. 13, Florida No. 15, Kent State No. 31, and Stony Brook (received votes).
Last season, four different teams were rated No, 1 in the poll – Arizona, preseason Florida, Florida State, and South Carolina.
The NCBWA continues its tradition of NCAA Division I polls with its 2013 preseason predictions and weekly surveys. Weekly polls will resume from Feb. 18-June 27 with the finale following the 67th annual 2013 NCAA World Series in Omaha, Neb., at three-year-old TD Ameritrade Park.
This preseason poll has representation by 11 different conferences among the 298 baseball-playing schools in the 2013 NCAA Division I ranks. The polls of 2012 had a NCBWA-poll record 22 different DI conferences and independents rated at least one week. For more information or to join
the NCBWA, please go to www.ncbwa.com.
Rank-School-2012 Record-Final ’12 Ranking
1 Arkansas Southeastern 46-22 3
2 North Carolina Atlantic Coast 46-16 15
3 LSU SEC 47-18 10
4 Vanderbilt SEC 35-28 27
5 UCLA Pacific-12 48-16 5
6 South Carolina SEC 49-20 2
7 Stanford Pac-12 41-18 12
8 Oregon Pac-12 46-19 11
9 NC State ACC 43-20 13
10 Oregon State Pac-12 40-20 22
11 Florida State ACC 50-17 4
12 Kentucky SEC 45-18 20
13 TCU Big 12 40-22 16
14 Arizona Pac-12 48-17 1
15 Florida SEC 47-20 6
16 Mississippi State SEC 40-24 30
17 Oklahoma Big 12 42-25 14
18 Rice Conference USA 41-19 18
19 Louisville Big East 41-22 28
20 San Diego West Coast 40-17 NR
21 Georgia Tech ACC 38-26 NR
22 Arizona State Pac-12 36-20 26
23 Cal State Fullerton Big West 36-21 25
24 Texas A&M SEC 43-18 19
25 Ole Miss SEC 37-26 NR
26 Texas Big 12 30-22 NR
27 Baylor Big 12 49-17 9
28 Clemson ACC 35-28 NR
29 Miami (Fla.) ACC 36-23 NR
30 Virginia ACC 39-19-1 24
31 Kent State Mid-American 47-20 7
32 Southern Miss C-USA 32-24 NR
33 UC Irvine Big West 31-25 NR
34 New Mexico Mountain West 37-24 NR
35 Coastal Carolina Big South 42-19 NR
Others receiving votes (listed alphabetically): Army (41-15), Bryant (33-21), Cal Poly (36-20), College of Charleston (38-22), Dallas Baptist (41-19), East Carolina (36-24-1), Florida Atlantic (32-22), FIU (31-26), Georgia (31-26), Gonzaga (34-22), Indiana State (41-19), Long Beach State (28-27), Mercer (38-21), Missouri State (40-22), New Mexico State (35-24), Notre Dame (31-27), Oklahoma State (32-25), Oral Roberts (38-25), Pepperdine (36-23), Purdue (45-14), Sam Houston State (40-22), San Francisco (29-30), South Carolina-Upstate (33-20), South Florida (38-22), Southeastern Louisiana (39-21), St. John’s (40-23), Stony Brook (52-15), Texas State (32-24), Texas Tech (29-26), Tulane (38-20), UCF (45-17), UNC Wilmington (39-23), UT Arlington (36-25), Utah Valley (47-12), Washington (30-25), Wichita State (35-25).
Dropped Out From Final 2012 Poll: Stony Brook (8), St. John’s (17), UCF (21), Purdue (23), Utah Valley (29).
By conference: SEC 9, ACC 7, Pac-12 6, Big 12 4, Big West 2, C-USA 2, Big East 1, Big South 1, MAC 1, MWC 1, WCC 1.
