2021 Preseason College Top 25

Vincent Cervino

Photo: Jud Fabian (Mario Houben)

College baseball is on the precipice of being officially back and yesterday we released the Preseason All-Americans along with today’s Preseason Top 25. Perfect Game will be your one-stop shop for all things college baseball in the coming weeks, as we’ll have previews for each conference of Division I baseball along with previews and breakdowns for Division II, Division III, NAIA, and JUCO.

As with any year, the quest for selecting the No. 1 team in the country was not an easy one and featured a lot of debate amongst the merits of the teams. Ultimately, we went with Florida who ended last season as our No. 1 team following a 16-1 start, a sweep of a top-10 ranked Miami, and the breakout of star center fielder Jud Fabian. Florida featured three players on the Preseason All-American team, which includes the aforementioned Fabian on the first team, Tommy Mace on the second team, and Hunter Barco on the third team. We’ll have a full report and feature article from Jeff Dahn on the No. 1 Gators later this week.

The rest of the top-10 features a lot of the usual suspects as Louisville, Texas Tech, and UCLA were ranked No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4, respectively, when the season ended and retain those rankings now. Louisville might have the deepest group of returning hitters in the country while Texas Tech would rival them in that department. The Bruins return their entire weekend rotation and will be led by a college superstar in shortstop Matt McLain.

Ole Miss and Vanderbilt come in at Nos. 5 and 6 and both teams feature deadly starting pitching combinations in the Rebels’ Doug Nikhazy and Gunnar Hoglund along with the Commodores’ Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter. Miami is ranked No. 7 and will have to replace two of their weekend starters but have the incoming talent to reconcile that, while No. 8 LSU might have one of their best freshman classes in recent memory. Virginia has the pitching depth to compete with anyone at No. 9, and at No. 10 is the first mid-major in UC Santa Barbara as their starting rotation might stand atop the country when the dust settles on the 2021 season.

We’ll have a ton of content coming out regarding the upcoming season starting next week with full breakdowns of the Top 25 along with breakdowns of teams that just missed the cut in the 26-40 range. The rankings will be updated once the season starts on a weekly basis on Mondays following the action of weekend series. Make sure to follow on Twitter for all things college baseball and Perfect Game.

@PerfectGameUSA | @PGCollegeBall | @vcervinoPG

Breakdown by conference:

SEC: 8 (Florida, Mississippi, Vanderbilt, LSU, Mississippi State, Auburn, Arkansas, Georgia)
ACC: 6 (Louisville, Miami, Virginia, North Carolina State, Georgia Tech, Florida State)
Big 10: 3 (Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State)
Pac 12: 3 (UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State)
Big 12: 2 (Texas Tech, Texas)
American: 2 (East Carolina, UCF)
Big West: 1 (UC Santa Barbara)

Rank	Team		2020 Record	2020 Finish	Conference
1		Florida	16-1	1	SEC
2		Louisville	13-4	2	ACC
3		Texas Tech	16-3	3	Big 12
4		UCLA	13-2	4	Pac 12
5		Mississippi	16-1	14	SEC
6		Vanderbilt	13-5	7	SEC
7		Miami	12-4	11	ACC
8		LSU	12-5	NR	SEC
9		Virginia	14-4	16	ACC
10		UC Santa Barbara	13-2	18	Big West
11		Arizona	10-5	NR	Pac 12
12		Mississippi State	12-4	10	SEC
13		East Carolina	13-4	NR	American
14		Indiana	9-6	NR	Big 10
15		Arizona State	13-4	6	Pac 12
16		North Carolina State	14-3	17	ACC
17		Auburn	13-5	13	SEC
18		Michigan	8-7	21	Big 10
19		Georgia Tech	11-5	NR	ACC
20		Arkansas	11-5	15	SEC
21		Florida State	11-5	NR	ACC
22		Texas	14-3	24	Big 12
23		Ohio State	6-8	NR	Big 10
24		Georgia	14-4	5	SEC
25		UCF	15-3	12	American