Baseball Ranked in NCBWA Preseason Poll
2/1/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 1, 2011
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama baseball team is ranked No. 28 in the 2011 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) preseason top-35 poll. The Crimson Tide, which ended the 2010 season ranked No. 18 by the NCBWA, is one of seven teams from the Southeastern Conference ranked in the writer's preseason national poll.
TCU earned the top-spot in the season's first poll, after posting a 54-14-3 record last season. TCU's top spot in 2011 is the first-ever preseason No. 1 for the Mountain West Conference. Defending NCAA champion South Carolina is No. 8 in the opening survey, while 2010 NCAA Division I runner-up UCLA has been picked at No. 2.
The other five schools from the SEC in the top-35 are No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Vanderbilt, No. 19 LSU, No. 23 Auburn and No. 24 Arkansas.
Alabama also received 75 votes in the USA Today/ESPN Top-25 coaches' poll, placing the Tide at No. 27 in the country.
The NCBWA continues its tradition of NCAA Division I polls for the 14th year with its 2011 preseason predictions and weekly surveys. Weekly polls will resume from Feb. 21-June 28 with the finale following the 65th annual 2011 NCAA World Series in Omaha, Neb.
The poll voters come from 40 college baseball writers and related media persons from throughout the nation. After a preseason top 35 listing, the remainder of the polls will feature a national top 30 beginning with the Feb. 21 NCBWA survey.
This week's poll has representation by 12 different conferences among the 300 baseball-playing schools in the 2011 NCAA Division I ranks. The polls of 2010 had teams from 15 different DI conferences rated at least one week. For more information or to join the NCBWA, please go to www.ncbwa.com.
Rank School Conference 2010 Record Final 2010 Rk 1 TCU Mountain West 54-14 3 2 UCLA Pac-10 51-17 2 3 Florida SEC 47-17 8 4 Vanderbilt SEC 46-20 15 5 Oklahoma Big 12 50-18 5 6 Texas Big 12 50-13 9 7 Clemson ACC 45-25 4 8 South Carolina SEC 54-16 1 9 Cal State Fullerton Big West 46-18 12 10 Florida State ACC 48-20 6 11 Arizona State Pac-10 52-10 7 12 Oregon Pac-10 40-24 25 13 Virginia ACC 51-14 10 14 Stanford Pac-10 31-25 NR 15 Rice C-USA 40-23 21 16 Texas A&M Big 12 43-21-1 24 17 Connecticut Big East 48-16 22 18 Coastal Carolina Big South 55-10 11 19 LSU SEC 41-22 29 20 Miami (Fla.) ACC 43-20 13 21 Georgia Tech ACC 47-15 16 22 Louisville Big East 50-14 17 23 Auburn SEC 43-21 19 24 Arkansas SEC 43-21 14 25 Arizona Pac-10 34-24 NR 26 Coll. of Charleston Southern 44-19 27 27 UC Irvine Big West 39-21 20 28 Alabama SEC 42-25 18 29 North Carolina ACC 38-22 26 30 California Pac-10 29-25 NR 31 St. John's Big East 43-20 28 32 Baylor Big 12 36-24 NR 33 Wichita State Missouri Valley 41-19 NR 34 Washington State Pac-10 37-22 NR 35 Fresno State Western Athletic 38-25 NR
By conference: Pac-10 7, SEC 7, ACC 6, Big 12 4, Big East 3, Big West 2, Big South 1, C- USA 1, MVC 1, MWC 1, Southern 1, WAC 1.
