So... D1 thinks LSU, who's lost 4 of last 5 and has some horrendous losses on their record should be ranked 13 but Ole Miss shouldn't be ranked at all? Also, USC sitting at 15-0 with the current 40th toughest schedule cracks the list at 25?
So… what’s the problem? I’m not seeing it.*
LSU has no business in the top 25 and UPIG should be ranked 20-25
I don’t think that Mississippi should ever be ranked in baseball or anything else, ever. Period. Whatever success they may have, they most likely cheated in some form or fashion to get there.
I get the rationale, but I’m fine with it. Kendall and Aaron have said before that they rank teams primarily based upon where they think they’ll finish, not necessarily where they are or have performed so far. I get that a lot of people won’t like that, but so long as they’re consistent, I’m good with it.
If rankings were primarily “where they think they’ll finish”, updated polls would be pointless after preseason. Why bother ranking weekly if it’s just preseason projection with minor tweaks? If D1Baseball ranked where they think they’ll finish, we’d have one poll in January and call it a season. No, they update weekly because losses drop you and wins move you up. We stayed at 3 not because of prophecy. That’s fine, but with us having the exact same record as southern Miss + them having a harder schedule up to this point + them beating us head to head = they should be currently ranked ahead of us right now. Otherwise it’s simply SEC biased. What do you think happens if Southern Miss sweeps their next series and MSU struggles early in SEC?
I get this to an extent. You don't want to punish a team too much for 1 loss in February or March. But after 4 bad losses, I think you've got to at least move them down to 20+ and let them work their way up. Otherwise you may as well just put out your preseason rankings and then not issue the next one till a month into the season.
Oh I agree with you regarding LSU. I would put them down in the 20s if I ranked them at all. It appears that D1 expects them to rebound. I was mainly referring to the State vs USM ranking. D1 thinks that they are the 3rd and 7th best teams, respectively. It’s not that unusual for the 7th best team to beat the 3rd best team, in any sport.
Yeah. And I can see that one. Yes, USM beat MSU by 1 run in Hattiesburg. But they also have a couple of losses that are worse than our 2 losses.
We’re not talking about Selection Monday right now. We’re talking about right now- the current poll update, March 9-10, 2026, with both teams at 14-2 and Southern Miss holding the head to head win over MSU.
Yes they are ranking brands and will be until about mid-season. That is how it always goes for baseball. For that reason, we made a HUGE splash going from 4 years of unranked to preseason #4. That just shows you the respect a coach like Oak commands and what an impact our massive portal haul made.
Offensively, this is by far the deepest MSU team I've ever seen. We have multiple good options at every position.
So if us and USM both keep winning, and then we beat them on March 24, now who ranks higher? Moving teams around based on one single game using midweek pitching has never been what they do. LSU had to lose 4 of them before they even considered raising an eyebrow in their direction.
RPI and SOS are fairly meaningless at this early stage. If you don't believe me, look at some of the teams high in RPI at the moment. We did lose to them by 1 run at their place but anyone keeping up with things knows that we were on the road at the Texas tournament, couldn't get a flight back and had to bus to Hattiesburg from Dallas. It was the perfect time to play us and we made some errors that showed we were not very sharp for the game. I mean, if folks think USM is better than us, I have no issue with them being ranked higher but it needs to be more than just based on the results of that one game using midweek pitching.
That’s just a polite way of saying “we weren’t at our best, so the loss doesn’t really count.” Every team has off days, travel issues, midweek arms, whatever. Southern Miss still had to execute, they still had to win the game, and they did. Just like they beat Ole Miss yesterday. You don’t get to asterisk the L because you were “not sharp.” That’s what the game is- who wins when both teams show up that day. Polls are supposed to reflect today, right now, not “what if we weren’t tired.” If polls are resume-based as D1Baseball claims, Southern Miss should be ahead right now. Not in April, not after SEC play- just right now, based on the games played. How can you not agree with thís?
I do think there’s SEC bias- a mid-major would be lucky to stay top 25 after 4 losses like LSU had.
If it’s truly a “combination of resume to date and how good we think they are,” then Southern Miss deserves more credit right now than No. 7. They have the literal win, the #1 non con SOS nationally, 4-0 conference record. That’s not just “resume to date”- that’s a really strong current resume to date plus a team that looks legitimately good. A little projection is understandable- but when the resume and the eye test both lean toward Southern Miss being ahead right now, keeping them at #7 while we stay #3 feels like the projection part is outweighing the actual results a bit too much. But like I said, I think SEC bias is baked in too.
Only a state fan would want another in state program ranked ahead of us, no matter of wins or losses. Crazy how dumb our fanbase is.
If you really cared about the sport itself and were a real fan of it, you’d want the rankings to be honest. You’re obviously not.
And "right now", polls and RPI's mean absolutely nothing, that's why football playoff poll doesn't come out for weeks after the season even starts. 39 more games to play, pollsa and rankings are meant to sell magazines and give people in a bar something to talk about. A guest on one of the talk shows last week said every season there have been teams that made the NCAA baseball tournament w/ 5-7 mid week losses. Worry about RPI the last week in May because that's when it comes into play.
