College : : Rankings
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
2017 Preseason College Top 25
Photo: TCU Athletics
Preseason All-American Team | 2017 College Baseball Preview Index
Welcome to the first Top 25 team rankings for the 2017 college baseball season and thanks to our friends at Rawlings for presenting our 2017 college baseball content. Listed below are the Top 25 teams, a list assembled by Perfect Game's Patrick Ebert, Mike Rooney and Jheremy Brown.
For the third year in a row the No. 1 team was an absolute unanimous vote among the Perfect Game staff with Texas Christian getting the nod to open the 2017 season in the top spot. With five Preseason All-Americans (Luken Baker, Elliott Barzilli, Durbin Feltman, Brian Howard and Evan Skoug), 22 players that returned from last year's College World Series squad and another strong recruiting class, the Horned Frogs are poised for a huge season as they look to return to Omaha for the fourth consecutive year.
Jeff Dahn will have a feature on Head Coach Jim Schlossnagle and his Horned Frogs on Thursday.
The four teams ranked after TCU were almost as unanimously agreed upon, even if the order varied from one staff member to the next. We do recognize that having seven teams (No. 7 Oregon State, No. 12 North Carolina, No. 16 Stanford, No. 17 Texas, No. 20 Houston, No. 22 Cal Poly, No. 23 Maryland) to open the year in the Top 25 that did not make last year's postseason may seem odd but we are confident each of those seven programs enjoys significantly better outcomes during the 2017 season. Considering that half of the field in Omaha in 2014 (TCU, Texas, Texas Tech and UC Irvine) didn't make the postseason the season before, it certainly isn't a stretch to imagine so many dramatic turnaround seasons.
We will make more sense of those decisions next Tuesday (Jan. 17) when we will follow up the Top 25 ranking with detailed capsules of each of the 25 teams. The day after that (Wed., Jan. 18) we will provide the teams ranked 26-40 along with a brief synopsis of each program.
Breakdown by conference:
SEC: 5 teams (Louisiana State, Florida, South Carolina, Mississippi, Vanderbilt)
ACC: 5 teams (Florida State, Louisville, North Carolina, NC State, Clemson)
Pac-12: 4 teams (Oregon State, Stanford, Washington, Arizona)
Big 12: 3 teams (Texas Christian, Oklahoma State, Texas)
American Athletic: 2 teams (East Carolina, Houston)
Sun Belt: 2 teams (Louisiana, Coastal Carolina)
Big West: 2 teams (Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly)
Conference USA: 1 team (Rice)
Big Ten: 1 team (Maryland)
Similar to past years we will update the Top 25 team rankings every Monday morning during the regular season. Stay tuned to Perfect Game and be sure to Like Perfect Game's College Baseball page on Facebook and follow PG on Twitter for all of the latest information:
@PGCollegeBall | @PGPatrickEbert | @JBrownPG | @Mike_Rooney
1
|

Texas Christian |
49-18 |
3 |
College World Series |
2 |

Louisiana State |
45-21 |
12 |
Baton Rouge Super Regional |
3 |

Florida State |
41-22 |
17 |
Gainesville Super Regional |
4 |

Florida
|
52-16 |
6 |
College World Series |
5 |

South Carolina
|
46-18 |
13 |
Columbia Super Regional |
6 |

Louisville
|
50-14 |
11 |
Louisville Super Regional |
7 |

Oregon State |
35-19 |
NR |
Did not make postseason |
8 |

Mississippi
|
43-19 |
15 |
Oxford Regional |
9 |

Vanderbilt
|
43-19 |
16 |
Nashville Regional |
10 |

East Carolina
|
38-23-1 |
18
|
Lubbock Super Regional |
11 |

Oklahoma State
|
43-22 |
4 |
College World Series |
12 |

North Carolina
|
34-21 |
NR
|
Did not make postseason |
13 |

Louisiana |
43-21 |
22 |
Lafayette Regional |
14 |

NC State
|
38-22 |
24 |
Raleigh Regional |
15 |

Cal State Fullerton
|
36-23 |
NR |
Starkville Regional |
16 |

Stanford
|
31-23 |
NR |
Did not make postseason |
17 |

Texas
|
25-32 |
NR |
Did not make postseason |
18 |

Washington |
33-23 |
NR |
Nashville Regional |
19 |

Clemson
|
44-20 |
14 |
Clemson Regional |
20 |

Houston
|
36-23 |
NR |
Did not make postseason |
21 |

Rice
|
38-24 |
NR |
Baton Rouge Regional |
22 |

Cal Poly
|
32-25 |
NR |
Did not make postseason |
23 |

Maryland
|
30-27 |
NR |
Did not make postseason |
24 |

Coastal Carolina
|
55-17 |
1
|
CWS Champion |
25 |

Arizona
|
49-24 |
2
|
CWS Runner-up |
Others receiving consideration: Texas A&M, Virginia, Sam Houston State, Georgia Tech, Miami