With the different levels of baseball played in the college ranks, it can be hard keeping up with the different rankings.
Well, don’t look any further because here is your one stop for all the rankings for NCAA D1, NCAA D2, NAIA, NCCAA, and NJCAA (along with some thoughts).
We will do these on Wednesdays since the D2 and NAIA rankings aren’t posted until then.
NCAA D1
For the purpose of our weekly roundup, we will use the rankings from D1Baseball.com. It seems that the NCAA likes that one as well since it’s the only one in their list that doesn’t send you to the other poll’s websites (one hasn’t been updated in 2 years and another isn’t even a website anymore).
No school from the Sooner State in the top 25.
These came out on Monday so OU’s loss to Dallas Baptist hadn’t happened yet. Having said that, I found it “odd” that OU went 2-1 in their opening weekend in Arlington and gave the preseason #9 team, Tennessee, it’s loss and the Volunteers didn’t drop nor did the Sooners enter the rankings.
NCAA D2
The D2 rankings are done by the National College Baseball Writers Association and are put out this year by Wingate University (strange).
D2 also does “regional rankings” which is supposed to help with postseason play since D2 does a true regional system to start it’s national tournament. You’ll see the national poll then the Central Region rankings since that is the region the Oklahoma schools are in.
National Top 25
UCO is the only Oklahoma school in the top 25 coming in at #9. They raised 11 spots from #20 in last week’s poll.
- UCO travels to #3 Central Missouri to open MIAA play in a 3 game series this weekend. It’s always cool to see a top 10 matchup.
- Missouri Southern comes in at #14 with a 10-2 record. Southwest OK State handed the Lions one of their losses. MO Southern has beaten OK Baptist and NSU.
- There are 3 MIAA teams, 2 Lone Start Conference (West Texas A&M, Angelo St), and 1 GAC (Southern Arkansas) team in the top 25. Oklahoma schools play in one of these 3 conferences.
Central Region Rankings
No surprise at the top 4 teams given the fact they’re all ranked in the top 25.
OBU loss to MO Southern last week, but move up a spot to #6 after sweeping Arkansas Tech over the weekend. They will play at Harding in a 3 game set this weekend.
Northwest OK State is the 3rd Oklahoma squad in the rankings at #10. They went 3-1 last week beating Newman then taking 2 of 3 against Ouachita Baptist over the weekend.
NAIA
We will take a look at 2 different polls for the NAIA level this year: the NAIA Coaches Poll and the poll from NAIA Ball.
NAIA Ball will provide a weekly media poll. They cover NAIA baseball as well as anyone and they have a good handle on who is doing what.
The coaches poll will be every other Wednesday and the first one of the regular season will be out March 13
The 2 teams in the Sooner State that may had a chance to be in the top 25 are MACU and USAO.
The Evangels are 9-4 and have 2 top 10 wins already on the season (#4 LSU Shreveport and #9 Missouri Baptist). They also just beat a 10-3 Friends Univ team by 10 runs.
USAO is 7-4 and are coming off a series win over #15 Bellevue (2-1). Their other losses were to #4 LSU Shreveport, Bryan College who received votes in the NAIA Coaches Poll, and an opening weekend loss that was “controversial” to say the least.
OCU also has a split with Bellevue, but they had lost 6 games in a row until yesterday so they weren’t getting in. Five of those 6 losses came to Bellevue, #20 Doane, and #21 MNU.
NCCAA
We will also be keeping and eye on the NCCAA National Poll in 2024. Local squads MACU and Southwestern Christian played in the finals of the NCCAA National Tournament with the Evangels winning the championship.
These rankings are a coaches poll and come out every other week starting yesterday (Feb 20). The NCCAA also has a “power ratings” that come out in April.
MACU comes in at #5 in the initial poll. Concordia (#1) and OUAZ (#3) are in NAIA Ball’s top 25 so MACU behind them isn’t surprising. I’m not going to pretend to know anything about the other two schools – Fort Lauderdale and Oakland City.
Southwestern Christian was 1 vote shy of cracking the top 10.
NJCAA
The NJCAA hasn’t released any regular season rankings yet. They did release preseason polls for each division. No schools from Oklahoma was ranked or received votes in Division 1. Murray State and Western OK State did receive votes in Division 2.
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