No Pac-12 Teams in Top 10 of This Week's Baseball Rankings
Pac-12 baseball gets more appreciation in the numbers-driven RPI rankings than in the national rankings this week, but it is apparent that Cal needs to finish strong to earn a berth in the NCAA playoffs.
No Pac-12 team is ranked in the top 10 in any of four major college baseball top 25 rankings released Monday. Arizona, the team Cal beat on Sunday, is the highest ranked conference team in two of those top-25s, earning a No. 13 spot in both the Baseball America and Baseball News rankings. Oregon is the top Pac-12 team in the other two, coming in at No. 14 in the USA Today coaches poll and No. 15 in the D1Baseball.com rankings.
However, the RPI may be more important because the selection committee uses those numbers when it chooses at-large teams for the 64-team NCAA playoffs.
In the RPI, which is based on a team’s win-loss percentage as well as the win-loss percentage of its opponents, Arizona is No. 3 in the country and Oregon is No. 4
Since Cal beat Arizona on Sunday, you might suspect that Cal -- which is 17-13 overall and 5-4 in the Pac-12, just a game out of first place –- might have a pretty good RPI ranking.
Such is not the case.
The Golden Bears are 113th in the RPI rankings, and they will need to improve that to get to the postseason.
Cal will have the opportunity to rise in the RPI with its remaining schedule, with series against Oregon State (April 16-18), Arizona State (May 7-9), Stanford (May 14-17), UCLA (May 21-23) and Oregon (May 27-29 to complete the regular season), all of whom are in the top 40 of the RPI.
Here are the top five teams this week in each of the four major sites that produce top-25 national rankings, followed by Pac-12 teams that are ranked in each. (You will note that SEC teams dominate the top of the rankings.)
The RPI rankings of all 11 Pac-12 baseball teams follow those rankings.
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1. Arkansas
2. Vanderbilt
3. Texas
4. Mississippi State
5. Tennessee
15. Oregon
16. Arizona
20. Stanford
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1. Arkansas
2. Louisville
3. Mississippi State
4. Texas
5. Tennessee
13. Arizona
14. Oregon
22. Stanford
23. Oregon State
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1. Arkansas
2. Vanderbilt
3. Texas
4. Tennessee
5. South Carolina
13. Arizona
15. Stanford
17. Oregon
21. UCLA
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1. Arkansas
2. Vanderbilt
3. Tennessee
4. Mississippi State
5. Texas
14. Oregon
17. Arizona
18. Stanford
23. Oregon State
25. UCLA
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RPI Rankings all 11 Pac-12 teams
3. Arizona
4. Oregon
24. Stanford
28. Arizona State
38. Oregon State
39. UCLA
66. Washington State
113. Cal
126. USC
163. Washington
164. Utah
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Cover photo of Oregon's Robby Ashford by Brian Hayes, Statesman Journal via Imagn Content Services, LLC
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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53
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