NCBWA Top 30 Poll (May 26th)

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FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
DALLAS – The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association continues its tradition of NCAA Division I polls for the 17th year with its 2014 weekly surveys. Polls will be circulated from Feb. 17-June 26 following the 68th annual NCAA World Series in Omaha, Neb., at TD Ameritade Park.

Louisiana-Lafayette is ranked No. 1 for the first time ever in the NCBWA survey and joins Virginia (eight weeks), Oregon State (four weeks – Feb. 17, May 5-12-19), Florida State (March 17), South Carolina (March 10), and Cal State Fullerton (preseason No. 1) as top of the pole sitters after 16 weeks of surveys in 2014. This tops last season’s five total teams at No. 1 during the entire January-June NCBWA compilations with six different top-ranked schools held that distinction. ULL also is the first Sun Belt Conference school ever to gain placement atop the rankings.

The poll voters come from 44 college baseball writers and related media persons from throughout the nation.

The eight No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Championships 64-team bracket are NCBWA No. 2 Oregon State as top seed, No. 10 Florida as second seed, No. 3 Virginia as third seed, No. 11 Indiana as fourth seed, No. 5 Florida State in the fifth slot, No. 1 Louisiana-Lafayette in sixth, No. 16 TCU at seventh, and No. 4 LSU as the eighth seeded squad in the bracket. All 16 regional hosts are among the Top 30 this week.
Defending champion UCLA (25-30-1) did not make the 2014 field but was ranked as high as No. 9 in the NCBWA preseason Top 35.

This week’s poll has representation by a season-tying-most 13 different conferences among the 302 baseball-playing schools in the 2014 NCAA Division I ranks, and there have been 18 circuits and independents in the surveys this season. Last year there were 12 different DI loops in at least one set of rankings after a record 22 different leagues (from 30 in NCAA Division I) were rated among the Top 30 polls in 2012. For more information or to join the NCBWA, please go to www.ncbwa.com.

Rank School Conference Overall Record Previous Rank
1 Louisiana-Lafayette Sun Belt 53-7 2
2 Oregon State Pac-12 42-12 1
3 Virginia Atlantic Coast 44-13 3
4 LSU Southeastern 44-14-1 8
5 Florida State ACC 43-15 6
6 Cal Poly Big West 45-10 4
7 Oklahoma State Big 12 45-16 7
8 Louisville American Athletic 45-15 5
9 Houston American 44-15 12
10 Florida SEC 40-21 14
11 Indiana Big Ten 42-13 18
12 South Carolina SEC 42-16 9
13 Vanderbilt SEC 41-18 10
14 Miami (Fla.) ACC 41-17 11
15 Rice Conference USA 41-18 17
16 TCU Big 12 42-15 20
17 Ole Miss SEC 41-18 16
18 Washington Pac-12 39-15-1 13
19 Oregon Pac-12 42-18 15
20 Texas Big 12 38-18 19
21 Nebraska Big Ten 40-19 24
22 Mississippi State SEC 37-22 21
23 Texas Tech Big 12 40-18 22
24 Pepperdine West Coast 39-16 29
25 Sam Houston State Southland 41-17 23
26 Clemson ACC 36-23 26
27 Arkansas SEC 38-23 27
28 Dallas Baptist Missouri Valley 40-19 30
29 Alabama SEC 34-22 25
30 San Diego State Mountain West 42-19 NR

Others receiving votes (listed alphabetically): Arizona State (33-22), Bryant (42-14), Cal State Fullerton (32-22), Campbell (40-19), College of Charleston (41-17), Columbia (29-18), Creighton (32-17-1), Georgia Tech (36-25), Indiana State (35-16), Kentucky (35-23), Liberty (41-16), Long Beach State (32-24), Maryland (36-21), Old Dominion (36-24), Sacramento State (39-22), UNLV (35-23).

Dropped Out: Liberty (28).

By conference: SEC 8, ACC 4, Big 12 4, Pac-12 3, American 2, Big Ten 2, BWC 1, C-USA 1, MVC 1,
MWC 1, SLC 1, SBC 1, WCC 1.