College Top 25: March 12

Top four remain the same, three teams join rankings

Staff Report
March 12, 2012


DURHAM, N.C—Florida maintained its hold on the No. 1 spot in the new Baseball America Top 25 rankings, but there was plenty of movement elsewhere.

Stanford continued a run of impressive early season series wins by knocking off Rice, ranked No. 5 entering the week, but the Cardinal remained behind the Gators. Elsewhere, North Carolina and UCLA made the loudest statements. The Tar Heels entered the top five thanks to a sweep of Clemson on the road in the opening weekend of Atlantic Coast Conference play. Meanwhile, the Bruins also went on the road and swept Georgia to jump seven spots up to No. 9.

The middle of the rankings saw plenty of shuffling as well, most notably with Cal State Fullerton moving up four places to No. 15 after winning a series on the road against a top-10 opponent in Texas A&M. Florida State also entered the top 10 at No. 7 after sweeping a two-game midweek series against No. 19 Central Florida and sweeping Duke over the weekend.

Three teams joined the rankings this week in No. 23 North Carolina State, which upset Georgia Tech over the weekend, No. 24 Purdue and No. 25 Oregon State. This marks Purdue's first appearance in the Top 25 since 2001. The Boilermakers are riding a seven-game winning streak after sweeping Murray State last weekend and have also won games against Auburn, East Carolina and Southern Mississippi during their 11-1 start.

The staff of Baseball America determines the Top 25 rankings. Records do not include ties.

Rk.	Team	W-L	Last Week	Prev.
1.	Florida	15-1	5-0	1
2.	Stanford	13-2	3-1	2
3.	South Carolina	13-1	4-0	3
4.	Arkansas	14-2	3-0	4
5.	North Carolina	13-2	5-0	8
6.	Arizona	13-2	5-0	7
7.	Florida State	14-1	5-0	12
8.	Rice	13-4	2-3	5
9.	UCLA	12-3	4-0	16
10.	Texas A&M	13-3	2-2	6
11.	Arizona State	10-4	2-2	11
12.	Mississippi	13-2	4-0	14
13.	Louisiana State	13-3	3-1	13
14.	Miami	12-3	4-0	15
15.	Cal State Fullerton	10-5	2-2	19
16.	Georgia Tech	11-5	1-3	10
17.	Oregon	12-3	2-2	17
18.	Georgia	11-5	1-3	9
19.	Central Florida	13-4	3-2	18
20.	Texas State	11-4	3-1	21
21.	Mississippi State	14-3	4-1	23
22.	Oklahoma	11-5	4-2	22
23.	North Carolina State	11-3	3-1	NR
24.	Purdue	11-1	3-0	NR
25.	Oregon State	11-5	3-1	NR
Dropped out: Clemson (20), Louisville (24), Maryland (25).