ESPN/USA Softball poll USF #21

[Papa_Bull]

There really appears to be a West Coast bias in the ESPN/USA Softball poll.

USF went 5-0 last week (including three shutouts) and currently has a 13 game winning streak and, yet, LOST ground in their poll. I checked some of the teams in front of us to see how they did during the week and quite a few lost at least one game to unranked teams. I think the USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Poll coming out tomorrow will have USF moving up a bit:  

USA Softball headlines and latest news

Pac-10 continues to dominate Top 25 Poll

3/30/2004

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – The Pac-10 Conference continues to reign supreme in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll with Arizona, UCLA and California holding on to the top three spots in this week’s poll. Washington and Stanford also check in among the top 10 at No. 8 and No. 10 respectively. Oregon State (No. 15) and Oregon (No. 17) also rank in the top 20, while Arizona State sits just on the edge at No. 26.

Louisiana Lafayette continued to move up among the nation’s elite taking over the No. 7 spot after going 2-0 this weekend, while Oklahoma continued to tumble down the poll to No. 14 after a 0-2 showing versus Texas A&M. The Crimson Tide of Alabama dropped out of the top 10 to No. 11 after a rough go of it during its fourth week of conference play dropping four of five games to Florida and LSU.

South Carolina suffered a three-game sweep at home versus Auburn for the first time in school history to fall to No. 18, while the Tigers jumped back into the poll at No. 22 with its successful trip to Columbia.

The University of Texas fell out of the poll for the first time this season after opening Big XII Conference action with two losses to Missouri

2004 ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate

Top 25 Poll

(for the week of March 22-28 )

Rank Team Name 2004  Record Totals Rank last week

1. Arizona (19) 36-1 499 1.

2. UCLA (1) 26-1 481 2.

3. California 31-3 458 3.

4. Florida State 37-4 437 4.

5. LSU 31-7 419 5.

6. Georgia32-6 402 6.

7. Louisiana Lafayette 30-4 366 9.

8. Washington 24-7 347 8.

9. Stanford 27-7 326 12.

10. Michigan 25-6 324 10.

11. Alabama28-9 322 7.

12 Tennessee 34-8 271 13.

13. Florida  31-5 223 16.

T14. Oklahoma 26-11-1 214 11.

T14 Oregon State 29-9 214 15.

16. Fresno State 29-12 190 17.

17. Oregon 25-9 158 19.

18. South Carolina 17-8 139 15.

19. Pacific 21-9 137 18.

20. Nebraska 22-11 96 T20.

21. South Florida 39-7 94 T20.

22. Auburn 25-4 87 27.

23. Georgia Tech 29-7 86 22.

24. Long Beach State 29-7 70 25.

25. Baylor 31-6 65 24.

Dropped out: Texas

Others receiving votes: Arizona State (16); Texas State (15); Northwestern (8 ); Notre Dame (7); Northridge (7); Florida Atlantic (7); Texas (6); Illinois (5); Iowa (4)

The ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 poll is voted on by NCAA Division I coaches representing 15 different ASA regions and 12 different collegiate conferences. The poll is also voted on by selected softball media members. First-place votes are in parentheses.

[bulls96go]

best place to do your talking is in the ncaa tourney

[Papa_Bull]

best place to do your talking is in the ncaa tourney

True. But, it's important how they seed you in the regional and where you play. I presume they use their own RPI formula like in Baseball and Basketball. I hope they don't use polls.

[USFFan]

Interesting that we appear to be not only the only Conference USA team in the poll, but also the only team in the new Big East (Notre Dame is gathering votes).  I like our chances of competing in the Big East in terms of all sports.  

Also, when you look at that poll, it's noteworthy that we have wins over #9 Stanford, #13 Fl*rida and #25 Baylor.  

USFFan

[smazza]

west coast bias?

we should have beaten arizona than?

i hate excuses

[Velcro]

60% of the Pac 10 is in the top 17

[smazza]

but to get to next level USF has to win those top games

sure warm weather conferences should dominate outdoor sports