Collegiate Baseball Poll = Garbage

For those of you who haven't seen the latest poll, it follows. First, let me preface this by realizing there's a lot of baseball left to be played and the tigers probably need to finish in the top 8 to get a super regional (what poll, not sure?) Please correct me if I'm wrong about that.

My beef is with something I noticed this morning. UGA had a 2-2 week, losing badly to ranked GT and winning 2 of 3 to unranked AU. They jumped from 12 to 8 in the poll below. LSU, as everyone knows, won 2 of 3 against a tough, although unranked, vandy club and drops from 7 to 9. Is vandy's football reputation trickling down to its baseball program or are there just a lot of misinformed coaches, sports writers and sports information directors?

again, I realize UGA has been really hot for a while since the tigers swept them (another reason UGA should be behind LSU). how can you knock a team which wins 2 of 3 every week against tough SEC teams, UCF, TU, etc...? another thing is to look at the ranking disparity in the two polls between teams like LSU and especially SC. How can one poll rank SC 5 and one 16! Give me a break, we all know SC is a top 10 team with that pitching staff. same thing with GT, although it's the baseball america poll that's sandbagging them (21 vs. 10). what gives?

COLLEGIATE BASEBALL TOP 25
TUCSON, Ariz. -- The top 25 teams in the Collegiate Baseball poll with records through May 16, points and previous ranking (voting by coaches, sports writers and sports information directors):

Record Pts Pvs
1. Stanford 39-9 493 2
2. Texas 46-10 492 1
3. Rice 38-9 490 4
4. East Carolina 45-8 485 5
5. Miami, Fla. 37-11 483 3
6. Notre Dame 42-9 479 8
7. Virginia 40-11 476 0
8. Georgia 35-17 472 12
9. LSU 38-14 471 7
10. Georgia Tech 34-17 469 15
11. Long Beach St. 36-13 466 9
12. Ole Miss 38-15 464 18
13. Washington 32-16-1 462 13
14. Oral Roberts 42-8 460 14
15. Arkansas 35-18 459 11
16. South Carolina 39-13 455 21
17. Arizona St. 35-13 454 17
18. Florida 37-16 452 6
19. North Carolina 36-15 450 16
20. Central Florida 39-12 448 19
21. Oklahoma 34-18 446 23
22. Florida St. 34-19 444 --
23. Cal St. Fullerton 33-20 440 --
24. Tulane 37-15 439 25
25. Wichita St. 38-13 437 24

 

Baseball polls are meaningless, just like in basketball. College baseball gets little or no media attention, so those who vote are doing so based on record, score and stats for that week. That's why you see such big differences in the 2 polls ... LSU is 4 in Baseball America and 9 in this poll. Go figure?!

The NCAA selection committee uses an RPI system, like the basketball committee. This is more important than the voting polls. Boyd's World does a pseudo RPI poll ... this week South Carolina is ranked #4 followed by LSU at #5, Florida #6, Ole Miss #7, Ark #13 and UGA #14.

Boyd's World

 

thanks Tigerwins

I thought that the NCAA went to some sort of RPI system when they expanded the field to 64 teams. IMO, that Boyd's poll is fairly accurate as far as the SEC teams. thanks for the input

 

Remember what we went through with the football polls?

 

Anybody that champions baseball polls and points out how high we are ranked, is a moron. Boyd's world is the best thing to give serious consideration in terms of our standings in the country. I do think out of all the polls that BA is probably the most accurate, but they are human as usual.

 

I hope you weren't alluding to me with your moron comment. I was just pointing out the extreme discrepancy in the two polls. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that if you don't win your regional and subsequent super regional, you don't go to omaha.

rememeber, these boards are for fun conversation and lively debate. too many people around here take these posts too seriously. let's just call my post an observation.

 

IMO ... if we don't win the West, we'll probably have to win the SEC Tourney to get a Top 8 seed. With so many SEC teams highly rated, one would think the NCAA would give more weight to the teams who won their division, the regular season championship, and/or the tourney championship.

Even though the SEC could make a case for at least 3 Top 8 seeds, the NCAA won't give more than 2 ... they don't want the SEC to dominate Omaha again.

This is a huge series this weekend...

 

i am totally ignorant of lsu baseball, i havent seen a game in years, although my old man is on the coaches committee and goes to away games.

anyways i have a question. does LSU get extra respect in the human polls the way duke might in a basketball poll, based purely on reputation?

 

I would think we do, especially in the pre-season and very early rankings.

Anyway, we are still at #5 in the psuedo RPI rankings, if we stay there we will be in very good shape for hosting a regional, the rankings don't mean squat at his point.
And remember, the super regionals won't be announced till they know which teams are going to make it, so even if we do not win the SEC we still have a very good chance of being in the top eight teams if we win our regional.

 

Actually just the opposite til this year. LSU has been the most dominant team over the the last 15 years and each year after we beat a pac 10 team or whoever to win the CWS, Stanford would be #1 or ASU or any team besides an SEC team. Texas.... You name it. THATS when Skip was here and it was baffling. They look for a reason not to put us up there. This year I think was fair til lately. Last week was a joke, we shouldnt have dropped.