College Top 25: March 9

Patrick Ebert

Frankie Piliere

Jheremy Brown

Mike Rooney

Photo: Tim Casey

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Four weeks into the 2015 college baseball season and we have a new No. 1 team. After three of the top five teams (Vanderbilt, UCLA and Texas Christian) beat up each other over the weekend, while also getting beat by now No. 23 USC, the Gators leap-frog Virginia to take over the top spot in this week's top 25 team rankings.

Southern California replaces Maryland in the top 25 rankings with a 15-1 start that includes a 3-0 sweep at the Dodger Stadium College Baseball Classic. USC beat both Texas Christian and previously No. 1 Vanderbilt Friday and Saturday in walkoff fashion, before beating their crosstown rivals, UCLA, on Sunday 8-4.

Previously ranked No. 4 UCLA went 0-3 on the weekend in the tournament, Vanderbilt 1-2 and Texas Christian 2-1. Vanderbilt falls to No. 5 while TCU moves up two spots after beating Rice, Vanderbilt and UCLA this past week.

Louisiana State drew strong consideration for the No. 1 team as more significant changes were considered since No. 2 Virginia, despite sporting a 12-1 record, hasn't faced any stout challengers so far this season. Florida ultimately got the nod given their recent sweep over Maine, their series win over Miami two weekends ago and splitting a two-game mid-week series with UCF.

The previously ranked Nos. 7 and 12 programs, Texas Tech and Houston, fall significantly this week after the Red Raiders suffered a sweep at Cal State Fullerton and Houston went 1-2 over the weekend at the Houston College Classic.

Two programs sit right outside the top 25 and received unanimous support from PG's college baseball staff despite not having a spot for them currently in the rankings. Illinois (11-3-1) took two of three from Oklahoma State this weekend and show a well-balanced club highlighted by a dominant pitching staff. Cal State Fullerton (9-5), who as noted swept Texas Tech, went 6-0 on the week and have turned things around since opening the season with a 2-5 record through the first two weekends.

Rk	Prev	Team	Overall record	Weekly record
1	3	Florida	14-2	4-1
2	2	Virginia	12-1	2-1
3	5	Texas Christian	10-2	3-1
4	6	Louisiana State	15-1	5-0
5	1	Vanderbilt	11-4	2-2
6	9	Oregon	13-2	3-0
7	8	South Carolina	12-3	5-1
8	11	Louisville	10-5	3-1
9	4	UCLA	11-4	1-3
10	15	Texas A&M	16-0	4-0
11	16	Florida State	13-3	5-0
12	17	North Carolina	10-4	4-1
13	10	Miami	10-6	2-2
14	18	UC Santa Barbara	11-4	3-1
15	19	UCF	14-2	4-1
16	20	Arkansas	9-3	5-1
17	23	Oregon State	13-3	5-0
18	7	Texas Tech	10-4	1-3
19	13	Texas	10-6	2-2
20	25	Florida Atlantic	14-2	5-0
21	12	Houston	9-7	1-3
22	14	Mississippi State	14-3	1-3
23	NR	Southern California	15-1	3-1
24	21	Rice	11-6	3-1
25	22	Arizona State	9-5	2-1