DALLAS (NCBWA) – The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association continued its tradition of NCAA Division I polls for the 18th year with its 2015 weekly surveys. This season’s polls have been circulated from Feb. 16-June 25 following the 69th annual NCAA World Series in Omaha, Neb., as Virginia captured the 2015 NCAA championship and top spot in the survey.
In a rematch of the 2014 title series in Omaha, Virginia outdueled Vanderbilt 2-1 in games and won its first NCAA baseball crown. It also was the Atlantic Coast Conference’s first NCAA diamond championship since Wake Forest in 1955. Both finals’ opponents were not among the Top Eight seeds in ’15 brackets. However, UVa and Vandy were Nos. 1-2 in the preseason NCBWA poll.
The NCBWA poll actually had Virginia No. 1 in four surveys from Feb. 16-March 9 before the Cavaliers captured NCAA kudos. LSU was No. 1 nationally for seven consecutive weeks from (March 23, April 20-27-May 4-25-June 3) while Vanderbilt (preseason No. 1, March 30-April 6), TCU (March 16) and Texas A&M (April 13) also held top positions in the 2015 surveys. The five different teams at No. 1 in 2015 equal the total from the 2013 season, and there were six different top-ranked squads in 2014.
The poll voters come from 42 college baseball writers and related media persons from throughout the nation. The final poll has representation by 13 different conferences among the 302 baseball-playing schools in the 2014 NCAA Division I ranks, and 16 total circuits were ranked in at least one ’15 NCBWA Top 30/35.
The preseason 2016 NCBWA DI Top 35 poll will be released in February, 2016 after the 19th annual pre-’16 NCBWA All-America team is denoted in January 2016.
FINAL 2015 NCBWA DIVISION I POLL (JUNE 25)
Rk. School Conference Record Week Pvs.
1. Virginia Atlantic Coast 44-24 5-2 14
2. Vanderbilt Southeastern 51-21 4-2 7
3. Florida Southeastern 52-18 3-2 2
4. TCU Big 12 51-15 2-2 4
5. LSU Southeastern 54-12 1-2 1
6. Miami Atlantic Coast 50-17 1-2 8
7. Cal State Fullerton Big West 39-25 0-2 13
8. Arkansas Southeastern 40-25 0-2 11
9. Louisville Atlantic Coast 47-18 0-0 5
10. Texas A&M Southeastern 50-14 0-0 6
11. Illinois Big Ten 50-10-1 0-0 3
12. Missouri State Missouri Valley 49-12 0-0 9
13. Florida State Atlantic Coast 44-21 0-0 10
14. Maryland Big Ten 42-24 0-0 15
15. UCLA Pacific-12 45-16 0-0 12
16. Louisiana Sun Belt 42-23 0-0 16
17. VCU Atlantic 10 40-25 0-0 18
18. Dallas Baptist Missouri Valley 46-15 0-0 17
19. Oklahoma State Big 12 38-20 0-0 19
20. College of Charleston Colonial 45-15 0-0 20
21. USC Pacific-12 39-21 0-0 21
22. Rice Conference USA 37-22 0-0 22
23. Houston American Athletic 43-20 0-0 23
24. California Pacific-12 36-21 0-0 25
25. UC Santa Barbara Big West 40-17-1 0-0 24
26. Florida Atlantic Conference USA 42-19 0-0 26
27. Oregon State Pacific-12 39-18-1 0-0 27
28. Iowa Big Ten 41-18 0-0 29
29. Radford Big South 45-16 0-0 28
30. Arizona State Pacific-12 35-23 0-0 30
Others receiving votes (listed alphabetically): Auburn (36-26), Coastal Carolina (39-21), Columbia (34-17), East Carolina (40-22), Michigan (39-25), NC State (36-23), North Florida (45-16), Oregon (38-25), Pepperdine (32-29), San Diego State (41-23), St. John’s (41-16), UNC Wilmington (41-18), Wright State (43-17).
Dropped out: None.
By conference: Pacific-12 5, Southeastern 5, Atlantic Coast 4, Big Ten 3, Big 12 2, Big West 2, Conference USA 2, Missouri Valley 2, American 1, Atlantic 10 1, Big South 1, Colonial 1, Sun Belt 1.
