Aaron Fitt: Hello everyone, and Happy St. Patrick's Day. Thanks for taking a few minutes to put away your hoops brackets and talk some college baseball. Let's get to it.

Aaron Fitt: As usual, decisions at the back of the rankings were difficult. I would like to get Texas A&M back into the top 25 because I think it's a top 25-caliber team, but Nebraska has had the more impressive season so far, beating better competition on the whole and sweeping a road series this weekend, while the Aggies took two out of three at home against a comparable opponent. Really it came down to Texas A&M against East Carolina for the last spot, and we gave the Pirates a slight edge on the strength of their good showing at the LeClair classic last week. Could have gone either way, really.

Aaron Fitt: Florida State traditionally plays so well at Dick Howser Stadium, and sometimes they will simply overwhelm quality opponents by feeding off their boisterous crowd. I was very impressed with what the Seminoles did against a very good Georgia Tech pitching staff, but I was not at all surprised they won that series at home. Tech's offense is suspect, and I think they're likely to have trouble scoring runs during the heart of the ACC season.

Aaron Fitt: I love all three. I think Matusz is the safest — he just seems like a lock to be a big league starter with all his outstanding secondary stuff — but I think the other guys have higher ceilings. Matusz seems like a No. 2 or No. 3 starter at the big league level to me, whereas I could see one of the others being a true ace. But Matusz has the best combination of durable frame, decent upside and likelihood to reach that upside, so I'll stick with him first. This will probably come as a surprise, but I think I like Scheppers next, just because he's got less effort to his delivery and is just scratching the surface of his potential. Can't go wrong with any of the three, though.

Aaron Fitt: Stowell is the better pro prospect, with a bigger frame and a firmer fastball, but Gorgen is, in my opinion, the best pitcher in college baseball, with an otherwordly changeup and an effective fastball that tops out at 90. His aggressiveness is what really sets him apart.

Aaron Fitt: The Bulldogs are on the radar, as they have been since the preseason, but there are still a lot of teams ahead of them in the line for the top 25. I love that Georgia has gone out and played a very challenging schedule and emerged in decent shape, but they also lost both of those series against Pac-10 teams and are just one game above .500 overall. Good losses are better than bad losses, but they're still losses.

Aaron Fitt: Surprises: UC Irvine has hit better than I expected, and Florida State has pitched better than I thought it would. For players, I'll go with Marcel Champagnie of Arizona State, who has come out of nowhere to hit .403 and stabilize the middle of the Sun Devil infield. Disappointments: Fresno State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Oregon State. As for players, it's Kyle Russell of Texas (.255 with one homer after leading the nation in long balls a year ago) and Kiel Roling of Arizona State (.160-.317-.320).

Aaron Fitt: We cut Ole Miss some slack last week after a 2-3 showing, but the Rebels followed it up with a lackluster 3-2 week—that's .500 ball over the last two weeks. When we gave credit to Arizona for going on the road to beat Georgia, the Wildcats did not have those other recent losses on their ledger, the way the Rebels do. And Mississippi was playing an MSU team that has been very disappointing so far — Georgia is a better club. As a general rule, I don't like to drop teams that win their weekend series, but sometimes we make exceptions, particularly when we gave the Rebels a bit of a mulligan last week.

Aaron Fitt: In Omaha, which is where I said they would end up in my "Eight for '08" predictions after last year's CWS. They just have so much firepower that it's hard to see them losing a regional or super-regional at home. I don't think the Sun Devils will win it all, though.

Aaron Fitt: Eldridge has always been a favorite of the Baseball America staff. One of the grittiest guys in college baseball, and a darn good player to boot.

Aaron Fitt: Fun question. Most years, I would take the SEC simply because of its superior depth, but the ACC has gotten much better at the bottom — just look at Duke and Boston College winning series this weekend against Virginia and Clemson. Vandy and North Carolina would be a dynamite series at the top, and so would South Carolina-Florida State; I would give the advantage to the home team in that one, but I'll take Vanderbilt in the other series, because Cary hasn't proven to be much of a home-field advantage so far for the Tar Heels. You could match Miami up with Kentucky, and as good as Kentucky has played, I'll go with the Hurricanes. These conferences are really even this year — I would love to see something like that become a reality, but I think it's a long shot at the very best.

Aaron Fitt: A little of both. Kentucky is a legit top-25 team, maybe even a top-15 team, but I don't think the Wildcats can keep this up forever. Alabama is in for a long year.

Aaron Fitt: The Beavers just aren't a top 25 team right now. We don't usually drop teams after 2-1 weeks, but I'm very, very concerned about the OSU pitching staff. The guys who were supposed to be veteran rocks (Mike Stutes and Jorge Reyes) while the freshmen got broken in have both struggled mightily. Oregon State is 7-6 — we cut the Beavers slack for a few weeks because they're the Beavers and they were No. 7 in the preseason, but it's time they start playing better and proving they're a top 25 team on the field. They'll have a chance to do that this weekend against a very good Pepperdine club.

Aaron Fitt: Irvine's much better than we thought it would be heading into the season . . . but I still like Long Beach State to win the Big West.

Aaron Fitt: For a team to come from outside the preseason top 50 and crack the top 25, it needs to prove itself against a good schedule. UCF has not yet done that. Next week, the Golden Knights will be 22-1, after sweeping Wagner, and we still won't know how good they are. That's frustrating.

Aaron Fitt: I thought Vandy showed a lot of grit to win that series against South Carolina. I was very surprised to see the Tigers of LSU and Auburn each swept by teams that I figured would finish in the bottom half of the SEC standings, Tennessee and Florida. I expected LSU and Auburn to be considerably improved; they need to show that they are. I think Arkansas' youth on the mound is catching up with it.

Aaron Fitt: As I mentioned in today's podcast, I really wanted to bring Pepperdine in again, but after a 3-2 week, there were simply other teams that were hotter and more deserving. It seems like every week the Waves have one loss too many to break into the rankings. But if they go 3-1 this week against Fullerton and Oregon State, they will be ranked next week — guaranteed. Michigan, meanwhile, had a 3-1 week and took one out of two from a legit top 25 team in Coastal Carolina, at Coastal. That's certainly enough to remain in the rankings.

Aaron Fitt: Dietrich is a high-profile guy: he was the Astros' top pick as a third-rounder last June, and he has stepped right in and contributed for Georgia Tech. He has true lefthanded power and arm strength, but he does not profile as a shortstop down the road. He's got a chance to be a heck of a college player, particularly if he gets on the mound for the Yellow Jackets in the next couple of years, and could be a first-rounder in three years thanks to his bat or, potentially, his arm.

Aaron Fitt: I like Missouri at home; that pitching staff is scary-good. Should be a great series between two of my "Eight for '08" Omaha picks.

Aaron Fitt: Of course not. That game was the difference between No. 7 and No. 13. That's baseball, I guess. You can play the woulda-coulda-shoulda game almost every day if you want.

Aaron Fitt: Not really. The Chanticleers probably would have been ranked in the same spot even if they had beaten Michigan.

Aaron Fitt: When we were doing our projected field of 64 in the preseason, we deliberated between Nebraska and Kansas State for one of the final at-large spots. We thought K-State was an intriguing sleeper, so we went with the Wildcats and left Nebraska out. That decision looks pretty foolish right now — that's a big series win on the road for Nebraska.

Aaron Fitt: For me, Saturday's win was crucial for Arizona State, because they were able to get quality innings out of guys like Blair and Dorado and were thus able to rest Josh Satow for Tuesday against Arizona. The Wildcats have their own fresh arm ready for ASU in Mike Colla, but you've got to give the Sun Devils the edge at home, with a rested Satow on the mound.

Aaron Fitt: Tulane needed to beat someone better than Oakland to get back into the rankings, but at least they took care of business and won in impressive fashion. I really like that pitching staff, which is why we ranked Tulane in the preseason. The Green Wave will be a contender for the CUSA title this year, although that road still goes through Rice, of course.

Aaron Fitt: Those young arms are the key — I'm not worried at all about Vandy's offense, especially with Giobbi hitting the way he has. It's guys like Cotham, Lamm, Hill, Brewer and Reid who will determine how far Vandy goes. So far, so good.

Aaron Fitt: That's a very good offensive club. David Cooper is one of the best hitters in the nation, and he's got protection thanks to Josh Satin's terrific bounceback year and the emergence of Brett Jackson. Jackson and Jeff Kobernus are two of this year's major breakout players, in my mind. And the pitching staff has true anchors at the front and back with Tyson Ross and Matt Gorgen, with quality veterans in between like Craig Bennigson and Alex Rollin. Very good club, which is why we've got them ranked 12th.

Aaron Fitt: I'll go with Brett Wallace, the best player on the nation's best team to this point. Not only is he hitting like crazy (.431 with seven homers and 25 RBIs), but he's helped the team immensely by shifting across the diamond to third base and playing solid defense. There have been a number of guys who have gotten off to great starts, but this choice is easy for me.

Aaron Fitt: That's all for today. Go get your brackets filled out over a pint of Guiness, and we'll see you next week.