College Baseball 2023 Rankings, Polls & Bracketology

[Otis 83]

16 hours ago, theeagleman5 said:

Yeah...let's WIN THE SUMMIT TOURNAMENT!!!....then see how things shake out.....ORU needs to keep the streak rolling and go 3-0 in Fargo.....

Totally agree Eagleman.  It would be great to see the boys roar through the SL tournament dispensing with three opponents in convincing fashion to finish with a 46-11 record, 26-1 in league play including the tournament.  Anything they can do to build up the resume and force the selection committee to think long and hard about putting them in a 3 seed.

[EagleManiac]

17 hours ago, Bogus Smith said:

Not only does ORU Baseball reach the top 10 in the Collegiate Baseball poll this week, but they are now slotted #29 in the NCBWA's weekly poll.  They are also #33 in the USA Today/Baseball Coaches' poll when you extend out the teams receiving votes (which ORU has received five).  They are now receiving the national attention that their record warrants.  Let's not stop the momentum now!! 

We're getting votes in multiple polls and they're going to give us a 4 seed? If I'm hosting a regional and the 4 seed I draw has 43 wins and is ranked in the national polls, I would be livid. 

[Bogus Smith]

20 minutes ago, EagleManiac said:

We're getting votes in multiple polls and they're going to give us a 4 seed? If I'm hosting a regional and the 4 seed I draw has 43 wins and is ranked in the national polls, I would be livid. 

Unfortunately, over half the wins are over teams with 200+ RPIs.  No respect for the Summit League and their ilk.  If we had even won one game over DBU and/or won the series with Stephen Freakin' Austin early on in the season, I think that the voters' perspective of ORU would be a little different than it is currently in some of these polls.  I am hopeful that our offense, defense, and pitching accolades will stay the course through any post-season efforts.

[theeagleman5]

I guess the more interesting question is....If ORU gets upset in the Summit Tournament do we get an At Large Bid???. Based on above comments by Bogus (which are right on by the way)....TheEagleman is thinking ORU gets snubbed....and that would be a shame....not many 40+ win teams get left out of the NCAA Tournament.......

[Bogus Smith]

We are still a 77 RPI.  Even if we stumble in the SL post season tournament, we will be well below a RPI ranking worthy of an at-large bid (and all the pundits will say, "we told you so").

[Old Titan]

Another projection as a 4-seed in Stillwater. 

I really think this has less to do with whether ORU is a legitimate 4-seed and everything to do with there are so many marginal at-larges from the P5's that are taking up all the 3-seeds.

God forbid they put a middling P5 such as Arizona State, Oklahoma, or Iowa as a No. 4!! #smh

[theeagleman5]

TheEagleman will go on record as saying ORU should still get an At Large Bid if we lose in the Summit Tourney but wouldn't be shocked if the selection committee hosed us......we would have at least 44 maybe 45 wins albeit most vs. the dregs of the Summit League.....as Bogus mentioned...sure would have been nice to get a win at DBU and a series win at SFA....all those wins over St. Thomas and No. Colorado not much help to our cause.....

[Old Titan]

FWIW, this guy thinks ORU would have a shot as an at-large if they stumble in Fargo (and, in a separate tweet, has them as a 3-seed as Summit League tournament champions)

 

[TrueBlue82]

While I like seeing ORU listed here, this prediction probably isn’t worth much…. Hard to see a 77 RPI ORU team earn a bid over the CAA 3rd seed Northeastern (last team out).  Northeastern finished the regular season 41-12, and was an impressive 7-0 in quad 1 games, which obviously helped fuel their current RPI of 31. 

[dave]

If we face Oklahoma State in the first round of the regional, will we see one of the pitchers we faced in the regular season, or did OSU hold out the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday arms on the Tuesday evening games?

[Otis 83]

1 hour ago, TrueBlue82 said:

While I like seeing ORU listed here, this prediction probably isn’t worth much…. Hard to see a 77 RPI ORU team earn a bid over the CAA 3rd seed Northeastern (last team out).  Northeastern finished the regular season 41-12, and was an impressive 7-0 in quad 1 games, which obviously helped fuel their current RPI of 31. 

I agree TrueBlue82.  That tweet is just a weird take.  I pulled it up on Twitter.  Just like OT's paste of the tweet, there are only 2 teams listed in "last four in" and only one team listed in "first four out" and "next four out." 

Agree with your analysis that its hard to imaging ORU bumping Northeastern with the season they've had (which I noted in my award winning post in this thread ). 

Finally, I'm not sure why, at this juncture he's assuming that ORU and Northeastern will lose in their conference tournaments and be seeking at large bids in the first place.  But hey 40 people have read the tweet, probably all from this board lol.

[Old Titan]

15 hours ago, Otis 83 said:

I agree TrueBlue82.  That tweet is just a weird take.  I pulled it up on Twitter.  Just like OT's paste of the tweet, there are only 2 teams listed in "last four in" and only one team listed in "first four out" and "next four out." 

It’s a mid-major account; he only lists mid-major schools from his Top 30 list among the Last Four In, First Four Out, etc., such as ORU and other mid-majors that fit the profile.

 

[Otis 83]

9 minutes ago, Old Titan said:

It’s a mid-major account; he only lists mid-major schools from his Top 30 list among the Last Four In, First Four Out, etc., such as ORU other mid-majors that fit the profile.

 

Thanks for the explanation. Kind of a narrow perspective

[ManiacAlum]

D1 Baseball's (Kendall Rogers) latest projection accidentally confirming mine and @Old Titan half-joking posts about there being only one regional west of Fayetteville AND ORU getting shipped off to Coral Gables:

https://d1baseball.com/top-stories/d1baseball-field-of-64-projections-may-25/

I *think* either Oklahoma State or Oregon State gets gifted a regional if one can get a win in their conference tournament loser's bracket.

But that still leaves ORU, Texas, OU, DBU*, Texas A&M, TTU, TCU, etc.

And any Pac-12 and California AQ's that don't get placed in a Palo Alto or potential Corvallis regional.

*Haven't seen anything yet about DBU hosting 

[ORUalum11]

Why are we calling ourselves #10? I can’t find that poll online. Isn’t the NCAA ranking the only one that matters?

[Old Titan]

38 minutes ago, ORUalum11 said:

Why are we calling ourselves #10? I can’t find that poll online. Isn’t the NCAA ranking the only one that matters?

Collegiate Baseball is the grandfather of all NCAA baseball polls and has always had a fondness for ORU since back when Larry Cochell would call the owner/editor to pump up the then-Titans.  They are very well-respected and have a history of recognizing teams that are being ignored by the other polls.

ORU first appeared in CB's 2023 poll more than a month ago and hasn't lost since, thus rising accordingly. Here's a link: 

http://baseballnews.com/collegiate-baseball-div-1-poll-5-22-23/

Many of the other polls such as Baseball America, D1 Baseball, and their ilk care only about drawing P5 fans to their websites, for the usual reasons.  They have little interest in recognizing smaller schools; in their thinking, "Why waste a spot in our poll on a little guy with a small fan base, when we can instead list a huge land-grant school and get more clicks?"

Which explains why teams like Texas and Auburn sprung from nowhere into those polls last week following  successful home stands, only to fall flat on their faces this week in their respective conference tournaments.

[Otis 83]

On 5/23/2023 at 5:24 PM, dave said:

If we face Oklahoma State in the first round of the regional, will we see one of the pitchers we faced in the regular season, or did OSU hold out the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday arms on the Tuesday evening games?

Our announcers said the pitcher we faced in the second game this season was their Sunday pitcher.  That's one of the reasons I concluded that OSU took that game very seriously.  They allowed that pitcher to throw enough pitches that he would be unavailable on Sunday.  Admittedly, they had a non-conference series following that game but nonetheless they let their rotation getting a little out of synch in what I feel was a full effort to win that game.

[Old Titan]

Regional Hosting Update:

Oklahoma State eliminates Oklahoma Friday night in the Big XII tournament, keeping the Cowboys hopes for hosting alive.

Personally, still not ruling out Dallas Baptist, who play in the C-USA semifinals this afternoon, but the latest bracketology from D1 Baseball is like a broken record:  ORU still a No. 4 in Stillwater.