COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Texas A&M Baseball team was ranked No. 24 in the USA Today Top 25 Coaches’ Poll released by the newspaper on Thursday afternoon.
The ranking is the highest for Texas A&M in the three major college baseball polls that have been released prior to the first pitch of the 2013 season. The Aggies were selected No. 26 in the Collegiate Baseball Top 40 ranking and were unranked in the Baseball America Preseason Top 25 poll.
Arkansas was picked as the preseason favorite, earning 10 of the 31 first-place votes. UCLA was ranked No. 2 followed by LSU, North Carolina and South Carolina. The Aggies were one of eight SEC teams ranked in the Top 25 along with Arkansas, LSU, South Carolina, Vanderbilt (No. 8), Florida (No. 13), Kentucky (No. 15) and Mississippi State (t-No. 18).
Texas A&M, which returns 17 letterwinners, finished the 2012 season ranked No. 18 following a 43-18 campaign. The Maroon and White will play their first season in the SEC after finishing second in the Big 12 with a 16-8 record last year. The Aggies begin the 2013 against Illinois-Chicago at Blue Bell Park on Feb. 15-17.
USA TODAY Sports college baseball coaches poll
Rank
School (first-place votes)
2012 record
Points
Final 2012 ranking
1
Arkansas (10)
46-22
715
3
2
UCLA (4)
48-16
644
5
3
LSU (3)
47-18
619
11
4
North Carolina (4)
46-16
613
17
5
South Carolina
49-20
591
2
6
Oregon
46-19
567
10
7
Stanford (1)
41-18
565
12
8
Vanderbilt (3)
35-28
523
25
9
Florida State (2)
50-17
451
4
10
Arizona (3)
48-17
422
1
11
North Carolina State
43-20
408
13
12
TCU
40-22
359
15
13
Florida (1)
47-20
350
6
14
Oregon State
40-20
329
22
15
Kentucky
45-18
307
19
16
Oklahoma
42-25
302
14
17
Rice
41-19
248
20
18 (tie)
Mississippi State
40-24
215
NR
18 (tie)
San Diego
40-17
215
NR
20
Arizona State
36-20
204
NR
21
Georgia Tech
38-26
187
NR
22
Cal State Fullerton
36-21
165
NR
23
Baylor
49-17
130
9
24
Texas A%26M
43-18
124
18
25 (tie)
Virginia
40-18-1
111
23
25 (tie)
Louisville
41-22
111
NR
Others receiving votes: Mississippi (37-26) 92; Texas (30-22) 84; Kent State (47-20) 68; Clemson (35-28) 63; Miami (Fla.) (36-23) 61; St. John's (40-23) 58; Stony Brook (52-15) 28; Central Florida (45-17) 27; Purdue (45-14) 26; Tulane (38-20) 19; UC-Irvine (31-25) 13; Pepperdine (36-23) 9; Missouri State (40-22) 8; California (29-25) 6; Oklahoma State (32-25) 6; Georgia (31-26) 5; New Mexico (37-24) 5; Southern Mississippi (32-24) 5; North Carolina-Wilmington (39-23) 3; Sam Houston State (40-22) 3; Cal Poly (36-20) 2; Coastal Carolina (42-19) 2; Dallas Baptist (41-19) 2; Fresno State (31-28) 2; Notre Dame (31-27) 1; Virginia Tech (34-21) 1; Wichita State (35-25) 1.
The USA TODAY Sports Board of Coaches is made up of 31 coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the American Baseball Coaches Association. The board for the 2013 season: John Anderson, Minnesota; Ed Blankmeyer, St. John's; Rob Cooper, Wright State; Barry Davis, Rider; Greg DiCenzo, Holy Cross; Pete Dunn, Stetson; Nino Giarrantano, San Francisco; Gary Gilmore, Coastal Carolina; Danny Hall, Georgia Tech; Carlton Hardy, Savannah State; Rodney Hennon, Georgia Southern; Loren Hibbs, Charlotte; Charlie Hickey, Central Connecticut State; George Horton, Oregon; Steve Jaksa, Central Michigan; Omar Johnson, Jackson State; Rick Jones, Tulane; Rob McDonald, Murray State; Eric Madsen, Utah Valley; John Musachio, Oakland (Mich.); Bobby Pierce, Troy; David Pierce, Sam Houston State; Gary Powers, Nevada; Mark Scalf, UNC-Wilmington; Matt Senk, Stony Brook; Dave Serrano, Tennessee; Ed Servais, Creighton; Doug Smith, UC-Riverside; Steve Smith, Baylor; Rocky Ward, New Mexico State; Bob Whalen, Dartmouth.
