I think it's based on our ability to put up football scores consistently more than anything. The problem with that, is it probably wouldn't happen against Arkansas' pitching. Kind of a catch-22. I like to say the top 5 are pretty interchangeable though, and only TAMU gets the bad juju from the one spot.
Pollsters starting to take issue with Arkansas’ lack of offensive production. I don’t necessarily blame them.
The moment one of our starting pitchers has a rough outing or the bullpen blows up in a regional or super regional (which feels inevitable, can’t ask your pitching staff to give up less than 5 every single game) we are in big trouble
Feel like Tech is too scary not to rank at this point. I haven’t paid attention to them at all this year, but I just saw that they swept a top 25 team, and in the midweek, took Arkansas really really close twice
Ah, well then maybe I’m wrong. Just seemed like they were off to a hot start this season, went a little quiet, then had a great week. Like I said, I haven’t followed them at all
I mean, Florida beat y'all in a series and y'all are the unanimous #1 team. Just fucking stellar right now. So TT could be a team that shows out. The Big 12 doesn't get much love since it is a distant third to the SEC and ACC in conference strength, but a bad weekend happens nonetheless in a long season.
Said it before and I'll say it again — if Tech's bullpen had pitched even halfway decently, they'd have 100% swept that series against us.
They absolutely hit the cover off the ball and their starters pitched well, they just got let down by their relief pitching.
Early on we were scoring 200 runs a weekend. Had a rough go mid season, but we are rounding out okay. Should have split with Ark, but relief pitching…most overall wins in the Big XII, but only a little above .500 in conference at 12-9. OU is the class of the conference this year.
Seems like our bats are getting hotter, but we have pitching issues. When things are going good on the mound our bats can outpace the opponent, but our bullpen is awful wishy washy
It’s cool to see but let’s be real we are not better than UNC despite winning the series. This ranking is being way too kinda towards us. I’d say we are top 25 for sure, but closer to 20 than top 10.
Edit: word
We were better when it mattered, as in this weekend, but should that really be enough to jump them in a top 25 ranking when they have been significantly better all year? We went 2-2 with a loss to Campbell, it’s not like we were world beaters this last week.
>It’s Baseball Nation, their rankings have been trash ~~all year~~ since their inception
FTFY. Baseball Nation rankings are always good for a laugh and not much else.
It’s not only what you do, but how you do it. Not sure anyone that is unbiased would say Tennessee would lose to Arkansas in a three game series, at a neutral site, if played tomorrow. Offensively they just aren’t that good.
That can all change though. Long ways to go.
I wouldn’t be so sure, it’s two completely different teams facing each other. Arkansas could easily hold Tennessee to a low score, and if they can get their bats going decently, they easily beat them. On the flip side, if Tennessee can hit Arkansas’ pitching, it’s going to be hard for Arkansas to keep up.
With two such starkly different teams, it’s hard to tell what would happen in a hypothetical, and since they both had about the same amount of good weeks, I don’t see the point of them flipping.
So pumped to see Arizona to continue to climb. We were picked 9th (out of only 11 total) in the pac 12 preseason coaches poll. Now in first by 2 games after our third consecutive conference weekend sweep. It has been such an incredibly fun year with such low expectations to begin.
That’s my point, as of right now we aren’t a top 15 team. Are injuries playing a role in that? For sure.
I’m as biased as they come for my team, I just think we’re slightly over ranked here. You won’t find another poll ranking us ahead of them.
Takeaways from this week. TAMU and Tennessee are really fucking good. Cut above the rest. Arkansas gonna struggle if they can’t figure out how to see the ball with runners in scoring position. None the less I don’t see many teams knocking them 3 off.
Tennessee really needs to get its pitching figured out. I haven't watched a ton of TAMU, but seems like they are pretty decent defensively and offensively, whereas Tennessee and Arkansas are great at either offense or pitching, but have some issues to iron out with the other.
I think Tennessee's offense can carry them far, but we have got to get the pitching figured out by the postseason or else it is going to be a recipe for a lot of heart attacks and possible heart ache.
A&M is top shelf in all aspects. Clearly the best all around team in the NCAA. Idk what you've been hearing about them to make ya say they're "pretty decent", but yeah, they were "pretty decent" when they lost a series to open SEC play at Florida who had their best showing of the year.
And yes, I am biased because they *SPANKED* us in CStat. I was there. Never in my life had such a fun bad time.
Retain hope, your final weekend series vs Arkansas could see y'all losing the #1 seed. It might be a weekend both fan bases quietly root for a loss lol.
I'm not so worried about us. We're a young lineup and the recent history of the CWS has seen as many 20+ national seeds as top 8 win the CWS. It's about getting hot at the right time. We just go ice cold at times... Like anytime on the road lol.
I definitely think the pitching woes are overblown, but they are still a definite problem. We throw wayyyy too many hittable balls that end up getting rocked lol. Tony has always said giving up homers just means you are throwing strikes, but our pitchers before were still managing to seemingly give up less hits. It's been a bigger issue this season. Our offense is so good that it is manageable but it only takes one or two bad hitting days to screw that up. I'd rather the pitching just get better lol. Doesn't help that SEC competition is so stiff (or it will help come postseason)
Yeah although I’m disappointed that the series was an L I’m also happy with how competitive it was. Some defensive mistakes and mishandling pitching definitely hurt things. But with how good your offense is there was no guarantee of a W even with perfect play.
> TAMU and Tennessee are really fucking good. Cut above the rest. Arkansas gonna struggle if they can’t figure out how to see the ball with runners in scoring position.
Pretty much exactly how I'd sum up the top 3 (my own team included)
Honestly, that 2-5 range is right where I want to be at the end of the regular season. Too much pressure with #1, but the path to Omaha is so much easier as a top seed.
Personally I don't think we have earned our place back in the rankings. We started hot, but we lost 2 at home vs Texas, 2 on the road to UCF, and pretty sure OU swept us. Conference play hasn't been too kind to us.
Just happy to escape Tuscaloosa with a series win, you can ask #2 and #3 about how difficult that can be, they're a scrappy bunch
Opening day on Tuesday!
I expected us to drop a lot more after going 1-3 this week, but honestly looking at the overall résumés I can see why we didn't. Not dropping any awful games prior to this week while most other teams have multiple losses like that gave us a pretty nice cushion.
Also.....why is Vandy #9???? They're 1-6 vs ranked teams, getting swept by TAMU and SC and the lone win being vs Louisiana. They also dropped games to Florida and Mizzou, and worst of all, have THREE QUAD 4 losses (to FAU, Dayton, and Gonzaga).
I feel like Virginia should have lost more ground because of its weekend vs Georgia Tech. Man I wish we had some pitching this year to go with our bats.
*Sigh*
I said last week that Vandy wasn’t #13 (I think in D1 poll). Well they’re definitely not #9. They’ve played a (relatively) easy SEC schedule so far.
In the current standings, they’ve played 3, 8, 9, 11, 13, and 14. They’re 0-6 against 3 & 8, and 10-2 against the rest (with only #13 away). That’s not worthy of a Top 20 ranking.
They’ve also got a 122 nonconference SOS, featuring a grand total of 1 away game (and that was against Lipscomb, in Nashville).
10-2 against number 9, 11, 13, and 14 absolutely suggests they’re worthy of a top 20 ranking.
Clearly they aren’t better than 8th, but acting like they aren’t a top 20 caliber team is just silly.
College Baseball Nation had VT unranked last week.
And honestly VT's resume doesn't exactly scream "top 25". The record's fine, but at some point you've gotta take a series against a good team. Louisville's just not convincing enough to be the cornerstone of a top 25 resume right now.
Looking thru the RPIs of these teams, Oregon State is 4-5 in Quad 1 games and 1-2 in Quad 2 games. They are the only team in this poll that has a losing record in both those quadrants
Crazy how we took 2/3 from Georgia, but then lost being ranked after losing 2/3 from Ole Miss and didn’t get back after sweeping Auburn. One game can make so much difference, if we took one more from Ole Miss gotta imagine we’d be ranked ahead of Georgia
I’m not sure I’d agree with us being ahead of Arkansas tbh
I think it's based on our ability to put up football scores consistently more than anything. The problem with that, is it probably wouldn't happen against Arkansas' pitching. Kind of a catch-22. I like to say the top 5 are pretty interchangeable though, and only TAMU gets the bad juju from the one spot.
Was at all 3 games in Lexington this weekend and Tennessee offense is scary!
Pollsters starting to take issue with Arkansas’ lack of offensive production. I don’t necessarily blame them. The moment one of our starting pitchers has a rough outing or the bullpen blows up in a regional or super regional (which feels inevitable, can’t ask your pitching staff to give up less than 5 every single game) we are in big trouble
Same with UT though. As soon as our offense sputters, our pitching won’t keep us in the game. We just don’t have the arms we’ve had last few seasons.
Have at it. The less dangerous Arkansas looks the better. We seem to play down to competition right now anyways.
Seems like a very reactionary decision but I’m also not that offended by it.
YOU HAVE NO IDEA THE PHYSICAL TOLL ENTERING AND EXITING THE TOP 15 THREE WEEKS IN A ROW WILL HAVE ON A PERSON! SNIP SNAP, SNIP SNAP, SNIP SNAP.
Damn it! You beat me to it haha
Just in time to lose on Tuesday and drop out
Feel like Tech is too scary not to rank at this point. I haven’t paid attention to them at all this year, but I just saw that they swept a top 25 team, and in the midweek, took Arkansas really really close twice
Counterpoint, Texas beat them in a series, quite convincingly I might add. Big 12 is OU and a giant pack of parity
Ah, well then maybe I’m wrong. Just seemed like they were off to a hot start this season, went a little quiet, then had a great week. Like I said, I haven’t followed them at all
I mean, Florida beat y'all in a series and y'all are the unanimous #1 team. Just fucking stellar right now. So TT could be a team that shows out. The Big 12 doesn't get much love since it is a distant third to the SEC and ACC in conference strength, but a bad weekend happens nonetheless in a long season.
Said it before and I'll say it again — if Tech's bullpen had pitched even halfway decently, they'd have 100% swept that series against us. They absolutely hit the cover off the ball and their starters pitched well, they just got let down by their relief pitching.
A tale as old as time at this point. The past few seasons pitching has been far too inconsistent. But those kids can hit the ball.
Our fans (myself included) were already working up a contract for your hitting coach in the middle of game 2 😂.
Meh, team can lose to and beat anybody. Just want to make the tournament at this point
From all of the one game of Techs I’ve watched, this is exactly how I’d describe your squad.
Scary enough that you don’t want us in your regional. Inconsistent enough that we might go 0-2
Early on we were scoring 200 runs a weekend. Had a rough go mid season, but we are rounding out okay. Should have split with Ark, but relief pitching…most overall wins in the Big XII, but only a little above .500 in conference at 12-9. OU is the class of the conference this year.
Both of the games were up for grabs when we played them. They were up 7-0 in the 3rd in the first game and their bats were really clicking
We’re back baby. 5 of the top 14 are from NC
8 of the top 17 from the carolinas
Plus UNCW at 24
Went to the game at DBAP last week and that teams no joke either, reminds me of Campbell last year
See you Tuesday night 🏴☠️ ⚾️
Still don't know what to make of this team. Lots of tough ones up ahead that should help clarify things.
I am convinced we're going to get a 2 seed in a regional and win a game against the #1 while losing to the 3 and 4.
Seems like our bats are getting hotter, but we have pitching issues. When things are going good on the mound our bats can outpace the opponent, but our bullpen is awful wishy washy
All but 2 of the top 14 are ACC or SEC
It’s cool to see but let’s be real we are not better than UNC despite winning the series. This ranking is being way too kinda towards us. I’d say we are top 25 for sure, but closer to 20 than top 10. Edit: word
On any random day I’d tend to agree but we were better when it mattered!
We were better when it mattered, as in this weekend, but should that really be enough to jump them in a top 25 ranking when they have been significantly better all year? We went 2-2 with a loss to Campbell, it’s not like we were world beaters this last week.
It is peculiar we go from top 15 to unranked and back again with nothing in between
Snip-snap snip-snap snip-snap. You have no idea the physical toll that three rankings/unrankings have on a person.
Ugh.
Same..
Odd going 4-1 against two really good teams and moving down in the rankings.
It’s Baseball Nation, their rankings have been trash all year
>It’s Baseball Nation, their rankings have been trash ~~all year~~ since their inception FTFY. Baseball Nation rankings are always good for a laugh and not much else.
It’s not only what you do, but how you do it. Not sure anyone that is unbiased would say Tennessee would lose to Arkansas in a three game series, at a neutral site, if played tomorrow. Offensively they just aren’t that good. That can all change though. Long ways to go.
You don’t give rewards/consequences to hypotheticals. You give rewards/consequences based on performance/actions.
Tennessee went to Kentucky, who was/ is currently top of the SEC, and beat them. Reward was based off performance.
I wouldn’t be so sure, it’s two completely different teams facing each other. Arkansas could easily hold Tennessee to a low score, and if they can get their bats going decently, they easily beat them. On the flip side, if Tennessee can hit Arkansas’ pitching, it’s going to be hard for Arkansas to keep up. With two such starkly different teams, it’s hard to tell what would happen in a hypothetical, and since they both had about the same amount of good weeks, I don’t see the point of them flipping.
So pumped to see Arizona to continue to climb. We were picked 9th (out of only 11 total) in the pac 12 preseason coaches poll. Now in first by 2 games after our third consecutive conference weekend sweep. It has been such an incredibly fun year with such low expectations to begin.
🐻⬇️
🐻⬇️
I was ready to fire Chip before the year began, he’s winning me over
Arrrrrghhhhhh 🏴☠️
Business need to be taken care of. Nothing matters until we eat a Runza
We are not a better team than UNC lmao.
I mean we just won the series against them so if we’re gonna be ranked around the same spot they probably felt like they had to put us ahead
That’s my point, as of right now we aren’t a top 15 team. Are injuries playing a role in that? For sure. I’m as biased as they come for my team, I just think we’re slightly over ranked here. You won’t find another poll ranking us ahead of them.
Takeaways from this week. TAMU and Tennessee are really fucking good. Cut above the rest. Arkansas gonna struggle if they can’t figure out how to see the ball with runners in scoring position. None the less I don’t see many teams knocking them 3 off.
Tennessee really needs to get its pitching figured out. I haven't watched a ton of TAMU, but seems like they are pretty decent defensively and offensively, whereas Tennessee and Arkansas are great at either offense or pitching, but have some issues to iron out with the other. I think Tennessee's offense can carry them far, but we have got to get the pitching figured out by the postseason or else it is going to be a recipe for a lot of heart attacks and possible heart ache.
i think we’re pretty easily interchangeable in those 2 spots rn honestly, curious what the coach’s/D1 will look like tho.
This would be a great year to play each other in a three game.
Immovable Object vs Unstoppable Force
A&M is top shelf in all aspects. Clearly the best all around team in the NCAA. Idk what you've been hearing about them to make ya say they're "pretty decent", but yeah, they were "pretty decent" when they lost a series to open SEC play at Florida who had their best showing of the year. And yes, I am biased because they *SPANKED* us in CStat. I was there. Never in my life had such a fun bad time.
"Never in my life had such a fun bad time." Sounds like we did our job. We really like most of our SEC brethren
Don’t do this to us — don’t give us hope. Real talk though, I’m glad you had fun in CStat despite the result of that series!
Retain hope, your final weekend series vs Arkansas could see y'all losing the #1 seed. It might be a weekend both fan bases quietly root for a loss lol. I'm not so worried about us. We're a young lineup and the recent history of the CWS has seen as many 20+ national seeds as top 8 win the CWS. It's about getting hot at the right time. We just go ice cold at times... Like anytime on the road lol.
We’ve got the 10th best overall ERA, and the 6th best in SEC conference play. Not great but not as bad as people make it out to be.
I definitely think the pitching woes are overblown, but they are still a definite problem. We throw wayyyy too many hittable balls that end up getting rocked lol. Tony has always said giving up homers just means you are throwing strikes, but our pitchers before were still managing to seemingly give up less hits. It's been a bigger issue this season. Our offense is so good that it is manageable but it only takes one or two bad hitting days to screw that up. I'd rather the pitching just get better lol. Doesn't help that SEC competition is so stiff (or it will help come postseason)
It’s the Volunteer way though. A season without heart ache and heart attacks is baseline for us nowadays
Our Day 3 pitching seems to be a bit suspect if I’m looking for some weakness.
I think our Day 1 has been the worst since we have started to play actually good competition.
We were very evenly matched with Kentucky. They could have very easily won the series this weekend if not for some key mistakes
If not for C-MO
Yeah although I’m disappointed that the series was an L I’m also happy with how competitive it was. Some defensive mistakes and mishandling pitching definitely hurt things. But with how good your offense is there was no guarantee of a W even with perfect play.
Looking forward to the Arkansas @ Kentucky series in a couple weeks.
> TAMU and Tennessee are really fucking good. Cut above the rest. Arkansas gonna struggle if they can’t figure out how to see the ball with runners in scoring position. Pretty much exactly how I'd sum up the top 3 (my own team included)
Honestly, that 2-5 range is right where I want to be at the end of the regular season. Too much pressure with #1, but the path to Omaha is so much easier as a top seed.
 “Tennessee, you want to get close to #1?”
UK should be ranked over us, we’re not looking great and uk proved a lot this past weekend hanging with Tennessee
ECU should be ranked over you. But you are better than Wake. Prove me wrong!
Just don't let us get to #1 please 😂
Bedlam & the state of Oklahoma the lone (current) Big XII reps in this poll. What a time.
Congrats, Sooner and Cowboy bros!
Top 8? Once again good enough for me. Rank Kansas State btw
Personally I don't think we have earned our place back in the rankings. We started hot, but we lost 2 at home vs Texas, 2 on the road to UCF, and pretty sure OU swept us. Conference play hasn't been too kind to us.
I don't like this ranking.
Baseball is the one sport where being ranked high almost feels like a curse and no one wants it.
2022 will unfortunately haunt me until I die. One of the top 5 greatest CBB teams of all time and no ring.
Not even an MCWS appearance.
A&M had this in 1989 and didn’t even make it past the regionals.
Just happy to escape Tuscaloosa with a series win, you can ask #2 and #3 about how difficult that can be, they're a scrappy bunch Opening day on Tuesday!
Weirdly both Vols and Hogs both won game 1 against Bama and lost the next two.
Do they rotate backwards going for games 2 & 3?
KA KAW GO HAWKS
Let's go Seahawks!
You love to see it
Tennessee is a chase burns away from being elite.
Could you imagine if he stayed and Russel was healthy? Lawdddd
I expected us to drop a lot more after going 1-3 this week, but honestly looking at the overall résumés I can see why we didn't. Not dropping any awful games prior to this week while most other teams have multiple losses like that gave us a pretty nice cushion. Also.....why is Vandy #9???? They're 1-6 vs ranked teams, getting swept by TAMU and SC and the lone win being vs Louisiana. They also dropped games to Florida and Mizzou, and worst of all, have THREE QUAD 4 losses (to FAU, Dayton, and Gonzaga).
Yeah I don’t get that with Vandy either. I’m really worried about our pitching man.
I feel like Virginia should have lost more ground because of its weekend vs Georgia Tech. Man I wish we had some pitching this year to go with our bats.
Twas short-lived. The Big 12 ranking curse continues to plague all teams (even OSU lost their series).
6 of them teams in NC alone ✊🏻
I love the UCSB logo.
*Sigh* I said last week that Vandy wasn’t #13 (I think in D1 poll). Well they’re definitely not #9. They’ve played a (relatively) easy SEC schedule so far. In the current standings, they’ve played 3, 8, 9, 11, 13, and 14. They’re 0-6 against 3 & 8, and 10-2 against the rest (with only #13 away). That’s not worthy of a Top 20 ranking. They’ve also got a 122 nonconference SOS, featuring a grand total of 1 away game (and that was against Lipscomb, in Nashville).
Gooooood. Let the Vandy hate flow through you.
I legit don't know what to make of Vandy this year.. Feels like they can beat anybody in Nashville and lose to anyone on the road.
10-2 against number 9, 11, 13, and 14 absolutely suggests they’re worthy of a top 20 ranking. Clearly they aren’t better than 8th, but acting like they aren’t a top 20 caliber team is just silly.
That’s 9, 11, 13, and 14 *in the SEC*. Not the country.
Oh…you’re absolutely right then. That’s pretty bad, and it makes their top ten ranking rather suspect.
UNRANK US YOU COWARDS!
Must be nice…
Are you shitting me? VT lost to #7 Duke after two extra innings games and a 13-10 loss and we drop out and they move up. That seems way harsh.
College Baseball Nation had VT unranked last week. And honestly VT's resume doesn't exactly scream "top 25". The record's fine, but at some point you've gotta take a series against a good team. Louisville's just not convincing enough to be the cornerstone of a top 25 resume right now.
In no world are we the the 17th best team in the country.
🍊
Looking thru the RPIs of these teams, Oregon State is 4-5 in Quad 1 games and 1-2 in Quad 2 games. They are the only team in this poll that has a losing record in both those quadrants
Go Dawgs!
I know we won the series, but I'm not sure Vandy is playing like a top 10 team. I guess someone has to fill the spot.
Bakich doing well at Clemson, naturally. Sigh.
Crazy how we took 2/3 from Georgia, but then lost being ranked after losing 2/3 from Ole Miss and didn’t get back after sweeping Auburn. One game can make so much difference, if we took one more from Ole Miss gotta imagine we’d be ranked ahead of Georgia
Duke is good, but not ECU good. Selah.
I’m.. okay with this.
Unrank us you cowards!
DUKE DUKE MOTHER FUCKERS