College : : Rankings
Wednesday, January 11, 2017

2017 Preseason College Top 25

Patrick Ebert         Mike Rooney         Jheremy Brown        
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
 Rk Team '16 Record '16 Rk
 2016 Finish
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


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