By Aaron Kirby
For 2nd time in 3 weeks the lead story is a mid-major traveling to one of top programs in the country and not just winning a series but sweeping a series. In week 2 FGCU swept Florida in Gainesville and in week four UNLV (13-3) enter the rankings at #15 with an impressive 4-0 week. The Rebels have won 9 games in row including the last three this weekend at the Sunken Diamond. UNLV started the week with a 14-1 win vs Hawaii to finish their own tourney the Rebel Classic. Friday the Rebels capitalized on Stanford errors pushing across 2 runs in the 2nd, another in the top 5th and hung on for the 3-2 win despite another great game from Stanford’s Mark Appel (7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 15 K). Saturday the Rebels pounded 15 hits in a 12-2 win and finished the sweep Sunday with a CG 2 hitter from So RHP John Richy (9.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K) in a 5-1 win.
Louisville (12-2) jumps up to #1 after sweeping Alabama. The Cardinals used a bases loaded walk in the 14th inning to win 4-3 on Friday Night. Saturday Louisville scored 6 runs in the btm of 7th on way to a 6-0 win. Junior RHP Jeff Thomas (7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K) improved to 4-0 on the season with the win. Thomas is off to great start (4-0, 0.73 ERA, 24.2 IP, 13 H, 8 BB, 29 K, B/AVG .155). Sunday Jr 3B Ty Young singled with bases loaded and one out in btm of 10th to complete the sweep with an 8-7 win over Alabama…………Missouri State (10-3) slides down one spot to #2 going 3-1 on the week. The Bears dropped a 5-4 game at Oklahoma State Tuesday before sweeping Northwestern over the weekend.
Up
- Notre Dame (10-3)-The Irish continue to impress going 2-1 at the Dodgertown Classic in Los Angeles. Notre Dame opened the Classic on Friday with a 2-1 loss to UCLA in 10 innings but rebounded with a 2-1 win over Southern Cal Saturday. Sunday Notre Dame scratched a run across in the bottom of 9th to force extra innings and pinch hitter Kevin DeFilippis delivered a one out single to give the Irish a 6-5 win in 11 innings.
- Florida Gulf Coast (13-3) climbs 5 spots to #6. The Eagles beat Michigan 11-6 on Monday, Bowling Green 7-0 Wednesday and swept Western Michigan over the weekend.
- Indiana (8-3) moves up 7 places and into the top 5 at #5. It is March and Indiana is basketball country but the Indiana baseball team should also get some love. The Hoosiers won 2 of 3 at Florida winning 4-1 Friday, losing 6-4 Saturday and winning the series with a 7-4 win on Sunday. With the tough part of their schedule behind them the Hoosiers have put themselves in great position to grab a bid come May.
- Austin Peay (13-2) enters the top 10 at #9 with a 5-0 week. The Governors beat Michigan State 10-7 and Western Kentucky 7-6 during the week and Wisconsin-Milwaukee 4-3, Creighton 9-8 and Arkansas-Little Rock 8-4 in their own tournament the Riverview Inn Classic.
- UNCW (9-6)-The Seahawks opened the week with a 6-5 loss at College of Charleston but swept a VCU (9-3) club that entered the weekend undefeated at (9-0).
- Louisiana (13-3) -The Rajin’ Cajuns won 2 of 3 at Southern Miss. After dropping the opener 9-2 Friday night Louisiana outscored USM 22-5 in the final 2 games, winning 13-4 Saturday and 9-1 Sunday.
Down
- Sam Houston St (8-7) drops 4 spots to #10 after a 2-2 week. The Bearkats picked up nice 3-0 win at Rice on Wednesday before losing 2 of 3 at home to UCONN.
- Pepperdine (7-8) falls 6 to #11 with a winless week. Since winning 2 of 3 at Texas A&M two weeks ago the Waves have lost 6 of 7 games including being swept at home by a Seton Hall (3-9) club who entered the weekend series winless.
- Middle Tennessee State (10-5) drops all the way to #25 after going 1-3 at home vs Lipscomb and Xavier. The Blue Raiders started the week with a 3-2 loss vs Lipscomb on Wednesday and then dropped the first two games to Xavier before winning 24-4 on Sunday to salvage one game and avoid a 0 for week 4.
Enter Rankings
- UNLV (13-3) see opening paragraph
- Furman (12-4) finally enter rankings at #18 after another nice week.
- The Paladins strong start to 2013 continued in week 4 winning 4 of 5 vs two good ball clubs. Their week started with 2 mid week wins at Coastal Carolina, 4-1 Tuesday and 11-6 Wednesday, and ended winning 2 of 3 vs Appalachian State in SoCon play. Furman took game one 3-1 and game two 6-5 before going for the sweep Sunday. The Paladins scored 3 runs in the btm 8th to tie game at 9-9 however a 2 out base hit in the top of 11th scored a run for App St who held on for a 10-9 win in 11 innings. Furman is off to a great start in the SoCon sitting at 4-2 with series wins at Elon and vs App St.
- Central Arkansas (14-2) comes in at #24. The Bears snapped Mississippi State’s 17 game win streak and 20 game home win streak Saturday with a 7-5 win and won the series with a 7-3 win Sunday. The only losses of the season for Central Arkansas are to 2 SEC Schools, at Vanderbilt on 2/20 and at Mississippi St on Saturday.
Dropped Out
UNLV, Furman and Central Arkansas forced their way into the top 25 and 3 teams had to exit.
- #17 San Diego St (7-9) drop out of rankings after losing 4 games at Arkansas.
- #21 Liberty (10-5) drops out of rankings with a 1-3 week. The Flames lost to William & Mary Tuesday and dropped 2 of 3 at Georgia.
- #24 North Florida (11-5) falls out after a 2-2 week. The Ospreys won at Central Florida Tuesday and lost 2 of 3 at South Alabama.
News and Notes
There were another 2 no hitters thrown in week 4. Friday Jr LHP Tom Windle for Minnesota (9-5) threw a no hitter in a 3-0 win over Western Illinois in the Metrodome………Stony Brook (3-9) has had rough start to 2013 but Sunday Jr RHP Frankie Vanderka threw his second career no hitter in 2-0 win over Fordham. He also threw no hitter at NJIT in 2011.
Tom Windle-9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K and 94 pitches
Frankie Vanderka-9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K and 102 pitches
Lamar (14-2) has the longest active win streak of any mid major in the country at 10.
| CBD Mid-Major Top 25 Week 4 | ||||
| Rnk | School | Record | Pvs | Wk |
| Weeks Results for 3/4-3/10 | ||||
| #1 | Louisville | 12-2 | #2 | 3-0 |
| 3-0 Alabama; | ||||
| #2 | Missouri State | 10-3 | #1 | 3-1 |
| 0-1 at Oklahoma St; 3-0 Northwestern | ||||
| #3 | San Diego | 11-6 | #3 | 4-2 |
| 1-0 Cal St Fullerton; 1-0 Seton Hall; 1-0 Holy Cross; 0-1 Michigan; 1-1 St Louis; | ||||
| #4 | Notre Dame | 10-3 | #4 | 2-1 |
| 0-1 at UCLA; 1-0 at USC; 1-0 vs Oklahoma | ||||
| #5 | Indiana | 8-3 | #12 | 2-1 |
| 2-1 at Florida; | ||||
| #6 | Florida Gulf Coast | 13-3 | #11 | 5-0 |
| 1-0 Michigan; 1-0 Bowling Green; 3-0 Western Michigan; | ||||
| #7 | Mercer | 14-3 | #7 | 3-2 |
| 0-1 at Georgia Tech; 2-0 vs South Dakota St; 1-1 at Indiana St; | ||||
| #8 | Florida Atlantic | 10-6 | #8 | 4-1 |
| 2-0 at Florida AM; 2-1 Toledo | ||||
| #9 | Austin Peay | 13-2 | #13 | 5-0 |
| 1-0 Michigan St 1-0 WKU; 1-0 Wisc-Milw; 1-0 Creighton; 1-0 Arkansas LR | ||||
| #10 | Sam Houston State | 8-7 | #6 | 2-2 |
| 1-0 at Rice; 1-2 UCONN; | ||||
| #11 | Pepperdine | 7-8 | #5 | 0-3 |
| Seton Hall; Seton Hall; Seton Hall | ||||
| #12 | Coastal Carolina | 7-8 | #9 | 3-2 |
| 0-2 Furman; 1-0 Ball State; 1-0 Harvard; 1-0 Ohio St | ||||
| #13 | SE Louisiana | 10-5 | #10 | 2-3 |
| 0-2 at Mississippi; 2-0 vs Hartford; 0-1 at Troy | ||||
| #14 | Creighton | 8-4 | #14 | 2-1 |
| 1-0 vs Arkansas LR; 0-1 at Austin Peay St; 1-0 vs Wisc-Milw | ||||
| #15 | UNLV | 13-3 | NR | 4-0 |
| 1-0 Hawaii; 3-0 at Stanford | ||||
| #16 | St Louis | 10-6 | #16 | 3-2 |
| 1-0 N. Dakota; 1-0 vs Michigan; 0-1 vs Holy Cross; 1-1 at San Diego; | ||||
| #17 | Dallas Baptist | 8-8 | #18 | 4-1 |
| 1-1 Texas Southern; 3-0 at Oral Roberts; | ||||
| #18 | Furman | 12-4 | NR | 4-1 |
| 2-0 at Coastal; 2-1 App St | ||||
| #19 | Georgia Southern | 9-6 | #19 | 3-1 |
| 0-1 at Kennessaw St; 3-0 Wofford; | ||||
| #20 | New Mexico | 6-8 | #20 | 4-2 |
| 2-0 LaSalle; 2-2 UC Riverside; | ||||
| #21 | UNCW | 9-6 | #22 | 3-1 |
| 0-1 at College of Charleston; 3-0 VCU; | ||||
| #22 | Gonzaga | 8-4-1 | #23 | 2-0 |
| 2-0 at Hawaii; | ||||
| #23 | Louisiana | 13-3 | #25 | 2-1 |
| 2-1 at Southern Miss; | ||||
| #24 | Central Arkansas | 14-2 | NR | 3-1 |
| 1-0 at Grambling State; 2-1 at Miss St; | ||||
| #25 | Middle Tennessee St | 10-5 | #15 | 1-3 |
| 0-1 Lipscomb; 1-2 Xavier; | ||||
| Dropped Out | ||||
| #17 | San Diego State | 7-9 | ||
| #21 | Liberty | 10-5 | ||
| #24 | North Florida | 11-5 | ||
| Others Receiving Votes | ||||
| South Alabama | 14-3 | |||
| Campbell | 13-2 | |||
| Lamar | 14-2 | |||
| Belmont | 11-4 | |||
| College of Charleston | 10-6 | |||
| Troy | 11-3 | |||
| Richmond | 12-3 | |||
| UCONN | 8-4 | |||
| Texas-San Antonio | 12-5 | |||
| North Florida | 11-5 | |||
43 comments
Again, it’s about the competition.
UNLV goes 4-0 against Hawaii and Stanford, but you rank them only the 15th best mid-major in the country.
Louisville is #1 because they beat Alabama — which has lost 8 of its last 10 games.
Since Louisville only plays one competitive team (if ND continues to win) the rest of the season, Louisville will be your #1 mid-major until June. And, no, I do not consider stumbling Southern Cal a competitive team this year.
This, of course, is the danger of ranking teams without taking into account the quality of their competition.
Louisville as of right now has a better RPI then Oregon, Oklahoma, NC State, and Miami just to name a few. Louisville has played the 14th best schedule in the country according to Boyd’s World.
UNLV also lost to a NON-Marco Gonzales pitched Gonzaga team and Pacific. Do you recognize that Hawaii has a great record of 1-14 on the year? 270th in RPI!
Tell us how the current RPI handles one’s opponent’s record, and one’s opponents’ opponents’ records. How does the RPI weigh those factors?
Your comments that Louisville plays nobody are wrong…Look at LSU non conference schedule! A bad Maryland team, Brown, Sacred Heart, Nicholls State, Do I need to continue?
Brian Foley
Editor of College Baseball Daily
Try to stay with us here.
The SEC teams do play weak pre-conference schedules….before beating each others’ brains out in the overwhelmingly toughest conference in the country.
Louisville plays a weak pre-conference schedule. They go on to play a conference full of chumps: Seton Hall, Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Villanova, Rutgers, etc.
The Big East is so bad that — even against piddling pre conference schedules — the majority of its teams already have losing records.
Louisville has beaten ONE team with a winning record this year — that was Alabama while it was losing 8 of its last 10 to settle at an 8-7 record.
You may think that’s what a #1-ranked team should be. I do not.
I used to know the answer to that. Its something like your record is 50%, opponents record 25% and opponents opponents record is the remaining 25%? Is that it?
Aaron,
Where do the road losses and home wins fit into this calculation?
Not sure but maybe you just multiply 0.7 or 1.3 instead of 1.0? That would be a good question for either Boyd or JPK. They both are on rivals board all the time so post it.
You’re doing this for money, Aaron. It should be your job to find you, not mine.
Ha…Aaron gets paid very well!
Brian Foley
Editor of College Baseball Daily
Yeah im still waiting for that check.
OK Fred come on now. You know i like debating with you but seriously. Louisville is #1 because they began the season as the #1 team and fell to #2 for 3 weeks but moved ahead of Missouri St when they swept Alabama and Missouri St lost to Oklahoma St mid week and swept NW. Unfortunately the way rankings work teams gradually move up or down based on week to week results. I have heard people say that polls should not even start until around week 5. Which does make alot of sense but then what fun would me and you have? If the poll started this week UNLV probably would be right at top but it started 5 weeks ago and they were not in the preseason rankings so it has taken them awhile to get in.
The MWC coaches picked UNLV to finish 5th out of 6 teams therefore i was not the only one who did not have them on my radar until a couple weeks ago. Its a process.
People say i like to argue just to argue but damn you got me killed. LOL
Aaron,
My point is similar to jbro17’s about Dallas Baptist.
You started Louisville way too high in the first place. When a team racks up wins against nobodies, and you don’t take that into account early, you get trapped into a hollow ranking. Now, you’re stuck with Louisville as #1 until they get pounded in playoffs — again.
Your argument about UNLV at the season’s start makes perfect sense. However, in February and March, teams whose performance skyrockets should also skyrocket in your ranking. (Yes, a team could enter your ranking in the top 10 this time of year.) Otherwise, they’re punished because everyone underestimated them at the start. Everyone including you and me.
Since you’ve accused me of hating Louisville, let me say again that I have nothing against them except that they play a lousy schedule and you’re rewarding them for that. The team I really personally dislike is Notre Dame; but their recent performance can’t be argued with. The problem is that, once they’re done with Cal Poly next week, they won’t play another quality team until regionals. Are you going to let their rankings slide in late April and May because they continue to win, but against nobodies? Not likely.
Notre Dame plays Seton Hall who just swept Pepperdine (didn’t we say last week that Pepperdine was a great team?)…Louisville, and a UConn squad which is flying under the radar right now…Someone needs to explain why Indiana and ND don’t play each other!
Brian Foley
Editor of College Baseball Daily
What IS your point?!?
I said that, although I dislike Notre Dame, one must give them credit for their recent performance.
Do you really think 3 series makes a competitive season? Respect to Seton Hall for playing a credible pre-conference. If L’ville played the teams Seton Hall has, they’d probably be 3-9 as well.
Louisville has scheduled harder then every SEC school this year. They can’t control who they play in the Big East.
Just so you know, Seton Hall was a regional team last year
Brian Foley
Editor of College Baseball Daily
The cop out of the non-competitive.
They CAN control what conference they compete in, can’t they?
“I choose to play in a lousy conference — AND play a weak non-conference schedule — but rank me high because it isn’t my fault.”
Gimme a break.
Louisville goes to the ACC next year so this is moot
Brian Foley
Editor of College Baseball Daily
Their national aspirations for baseball will be moot, too.
You are a joke!
Brian Foley
Editor of College Baseball Daily
As to mighty Seton Hall..
Fordham and St. Mary’s were once national football champions. How’s Seton Hall doing this year?
For that matter, how are once-in-a-lifetime CWS teams Stony Brook and Kent State doing?
You cold-weather people just can’t get it: flashes in the pan do not make champions.
Your arguments are flawed…you can’t predict how teams are going to be when you put a schedule together in October.
Brian Foley
Editor of College Baseball Daily
I’d like to point out that baseball programs…unless its a small conference true powerhouse like Fullerton or maybe Wichita State in former years…have no say in what conference they play in. That’s all about football and basketball. It’s all about the $$$.
And who is Aaron? I’m confused.
Anyone out there have anything good to say about Troy Buckley and the job he’s done (or not done) at Long Beach State? The program has regressed under his lead, he’s a good pitching coach but needs someone to run the other side for him. Look for a major staff change next season at LBSU.
I was actually thinking of them last night when i was looking at Pepperdine. Thought what they heck has happened to Long Beach St?
Let a guy on the West coast offer a thought. I’ve had kids who were dirtbags, so I have a tiny bit of familiarity.
Baseball is so coach-centric. LBSU’s primary problem is that Dave Snow is no longer there. He was a giant. He’s been followed by very much non-giants. Last year’s 3rd-place finish was their best since 2008. They competed for Big West titles in the early-mid 2000s, but always in Fullerton’s shadow.
Long Beach has a tradition, a nice cozy ballpark, and one of the best fan bases in college baseball. But it boils down to the head coach.
I gained an interesting insight into Buckley in the fall of 2010. I was informally advising a high school senior who was being recruited by top teams. Buckley developed a real rapport with the kid and started in the inside track. He then tried to pressure him to decide before he was ready; claiming this pitcher somehow was being disloyal to LB by not signing — and for less money. Completely alienated him. The kid signed a 100% ride with Oregon.
Athletic directors have gone through formulas for hiring head baseball coaches. Some decades ago, it was junior college head coaches. Recently, it has been top assistants, including Buckley LB thought. If you look at the performance of top assistants who’ve become D-I head coaches over the past 3-5 years, that formula has not borne out the hype. Maybe the new formula is to hire successful D-II head coaches. Personally, I don’t think there is a formula.
You would think it would be top assistants because they usually oversee scouting and recruiting…..and recruiting is absolutely critical for success. But I think you are right. There is probably not a formula.
All I know is that it is a tough job. The best of the high school players will sign out of high school….there’s some wasted recruiting time for the big D1 schools. Great players without the grades go to Juco and you can only count on having them for their Jr season. Finding the best of the non-elite high schoolers who you can project will do well, not hurt your APR, and fit with your team chemistry……..not easy.
-Jeff
Jeff,
Agreed in general.
I think assistants — especially head assistants and/or recruiting coordinators — are chosen for that very reason. The problem with that formula is that it discounts leadership, which is more important than recruiting.
Let’s say I’m a great leader taking over a D-1 program. I may not be great at recruiting (truth be told, most of us who recruited at any level hated it). But, I can hire one or two great recruiters and close the deal on the campus visit, while I’m building a winner. If I’m a great recruiter, but not an effective leader, I can have loads of ranked recruiting classes but never be able to turn them into winners. Look at San Diego State, for instance.
About high school vs. juco prospects…. You should first look at the percentage of freshman classes who actually play as juniors and seniors. I would guess around half nationally. Junior college transfers almost always play — which is why they usually command larger scholarships. But they’d better perform as juniors to keep the scholarships.
The old saw that juco players are academically deficient out of high school is proving less and less so.
West Coast community colleges produce Pac 12 and WCC academic performers from their general population every year. I had a kid a couple of years ago who turned down the Ivy League and a Georgetown scholarship. He went to UC Davis and, with an 84 mph fastball, helped them to their only regional berth. Then, he got an MBA at NYU.
I had numerous players in junior college, who were D-I academic qualifiers out of high school. Kids with reasonable D-I potential go to junior colleges to grow their games and earn scholarships as juniors more than to become academically eligible. Some of those were D-I recruited out of high school, others were completely overlooked as lacking the tools. In junior college, they developed those tools.
There are certainly wide swaths of junior colleges in places like Kansas and Oklahoma and more-rural areas of the South, which do not produce academic performers a D-I coach can take a reasonable risk on. The NCAA, unreasonably as always, assumes they are everyone — and penalizes perfectly capable transfers and NCAA baseball coaches who recruit them.
You are right on, Fred. And you are correct about it not always being grades being the reason kids go to juco.
I will add that it has always been my preference to get kids out of high school whenever possible simply so that you have them for a longer time…which allows them to learn your way, makes for better team chemistry and camaraderie, and makes them more likely to contribute back to the program as an alum (especially if they are drafted after their jr year).
But you’ve always got holes to fill and every year there are really, really good juco players to choose from!
I’m okay with most of this. Austin Peay certainly deserves to be higher, I think. Sam Houston does not belong in the top 10.
New Mexico? I don’t really understand why they are still on here…..must assume you know something i don’t.
But now….yet again…we come to Dallas Baptist *SIGH* WHY?. I don’t care that they beat a crummy Oral Roberts team. And please don’t throw out the “I couldn’t take them off the top 25 because they went 4-1 this week” They STILL have not played ANYBODY except for one win against Rice who, by the way, ain’t showing all that much this year either. Oral Roberts is up, down, up, down every year and so far they are a definite down.. Need proof? Well, they got beat by Dallas Baptist 3 times didn’t they? What an embarrassment.
Dallas Baptist RPI: 218
Dallas Baptist Boyds World ISR: 170
Dallas Baptist Boyds World S.O.S.: 208
Dallas Baptist Record: 8-8
Dallas Baptist Ranking on the CBD Mid Major: 17th best in the country.
I bet I could find at least 100….maybe 125 schools more deserving of being in the top 25 than they are. And yes, I have lost patience with mentioning Dallas Baptist.
But as I said in the beginning, I’m pretty good with most of it. NIce work. Getting better every week.
My God…..I just realized Furman is behind Dallas Baptist. I’m going to have an aneurysm.
Here is the problem with Dallas Baptist.
Start Week 1 at #6 (0-3)
Start week 2 at #14 and they go (4-0)
Start week 3 at #7 but they go (0-4)
Start week 4 at #18 and they go (4-1)
week 5 they are at #17 and if their pattern continues they will go 0 for week and will drop out.
You notice the pattern? That is why they are still in the rankings. And as i explained in week 3 when they jumped back up to #7 it was almost by default as just about everyone in front of them lost.
Start Week 1 at #6 (0-3)
Here is the problem. Based on past experience, you should have known that Top 25 teams who deserve to be there will generally have at least 8 wins to go along with three losses. They lost the first three of the season and should have been tossed out right then and there. I realize that some good teams may start slow but they were playing Creighton and should have come away with at least one win to even cling to the bottom of the Top 25.
Then the fact that they even scheduled a SWAC team the second weekend should have pushed them out regardless of whether they won or not.
I know you are trying to be gradual with movement in the polls to keep stability, but my suggestion would be to come up with some kind of mathematical formula to determine how far a team could move in any one week. Perhaps you take the number of games a particular team plays that week and divide it by the number of games played so far in the season. The first week means that number will be 100%….which means a team can move a maximum number up or down (let’s say 40 spots just as an example)
The next week it becomes 50%….so the most a team can move is 20 spots (again, up or down). The next it is 33% (13 spots). Then 25% (10 spots). Then 20% (8 spots) And so on and so on.
That way stability in the polls gradually grows week by week and you don’t end up with crummy teams in there for too long the first few weeks at the expense of other teams who deserve it…..all because you guess-ranked them too high to begin with.
Make sense?
Dont worry they will either earn their ranking or be dropped out this week. They host Sam Houston this weekend.
Let me ask you this…..What is better?
Going 3-0 vs Mississippi Valley State
or
1-2 vs Oklahoma St
1-2 vs Ok St.
It proves that you have the capability of beating a quality Big 12 opponent. 3-0 vs Miss Valley St proves nothing. I would even say that from a pure scheduling perspective, going 0-3 vs Ok St is about the same as 3-0 vs M.V.S. In both instances, nothing much is proven. You aren’t good enough to beat Ok State even once but it doesn’t show how much worse than them you are (not unlike 150 other teams). Or you are good enough to beat the very worst of Div I, but it doesn’t show how much better (not unlike the same 150 other teams).
Ideally, the risk/reward of playing a team like MVS should be self-evident. You win, you haven’t really proven anything and if you lose, you get punished severely. So you really shouldn’t want to schedule more than one game with an opponent like that.
When I see the schedules teams like Miss St. play it disgusts me. They should not be getting national poll attention. Ole Miss isn’t much better but at least they scheduled 3 against TCU early….that is….before anybody realized TCU was going to be terrible this year. (I heard a scout say they were shockingly horrible this year).
By the way, TCU beat Dallas Baptist on Feb 26th. 6-1
Yes i agree. Especially when you factor in the RPI. Ill use Elon as an example. Last year they just 33-26 and you would think any “mid-major” with that type of record would have no shot at an atlarge bid. But since they played such a good mid week schedule all year their RPI ended up being 46 at the end of season. They did not get a bid but they were in the mix.
What makes the rankings fun to do is to try and weigh all of that into moving a team up or down. That leaves alot of room for debate and judgement.
Exactly. That’s the reason that the Southland conference is decent in baseball. Over the years many of those schools have regularly scheduled tough opponents outside of conference. Some left the past year or two but schools like Texas St, Sam Houston, and Texas-Arlington have built really good baseball programs because they regularly play Texas, Baylor, A&M, OU, TCU, etc. 3 SLC schools were in the Top 64 RPI at the end of 2012.
As you may recall, my team is Texas-Arlington who just dropped 2 of 3 to a so-so Texas Tech this past weekend (oh, that hurt). But they beat OU earlier in the week and lost to Texas by a run a few weeks ago. They have TCU, A&M, and Baylor coming up later in the year. So if they end up, like you pointed out with Elon, with a little less than 40 wins, they give themselves a chance with the RPI to nab an at-large.
By the way, no matter how well they do this year I ask that you NOT EVER consider them for your Top 25. It was a big-time jinx last year…..or maybe I was the jinx for complaining about them deserving it….either way they are off the table. Agreed?
There are alot of very good programs around Texas which helps too. Same thing with CA, FL, GA, SC, and NC. The rule of thumb used to be a team had to win 40+ and probably win regular season title to get an atlarge bid. I have been saying that is not true anymore for about the last 4-5 years and i had a couple coaches arguing that was still the case. However the last few years have proved me right and it shut them up. 🙂
hahahahahaha I thought that was you but was not sure. Cant agree to that………………..I do the same to WCU. Well it is either me or Sorenson. He picked WCU to win SoCon this year and i picked them 2nd and he picked them to win it in 2011 and i picked them 2nd and they finished 8th. Was talking to Moranda before season and he said im just glad you didnt pick us to win it.
I agree with the SWAC statement outside of a few of them. There are a few SWAC schools that are competitive outside of conference; Alabama State(beat Mercer and Troy), Jackson State(played Kansas and Troy to really close games), UAPB beat TCU, I’ve never been a huge fan of the SWAC but some of those teams are on the rise.
Agreed. There are a few getting a little better. And there is nothing wrong with playing a SWAC team…..once. But a 3 game weekend? Ugh.
If you are going off of RPI Furman should be your number 1 Mid Major team with an RPI of 5 and it was 2 until they lost the game to App. State on Sunday?
It is way too early to start looking at the RPI #s. But if my team was #2 or #5 id probably mention it too. Rice is #118
I love what Furman is doing and hope they keep it up just not April 5th, 6th and 7th. 🙂
Dallas Baptist has won the first two games vs Sam Houston. 18-4 and 8-7
New Mexico won at UNLV 3-2 in 10 innings to start their MWC series. New Mexico lost 4-3 in 11 innings at Arizona State earlier in week but seem to be playing better.
Atleast those 2 are not making me look to bad right now.
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