Preseason Top 25 Rankings

Vincent Cervino

Craig Cozart

While the athletes haven’t even reported back to campus after winter break, we are only six short weeks away from the 2024 Opening Weekend. The parity across the landscape of college baseball continues to grow and this made our pre-season poll this year that much more challenging. After memorable team and individual performances still fresh in our memory from 2023, we are excited to dive into the action in the new year.

After a historic run to Omaha, as they led the nation in virtually every major pitching category and having landed two of the three top transfers, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons will open the season our No.1 team in the country. With potential top pick, power hitting Nick Kurtz, All-American LHP Josh Hartle and the additions of RHP Chase Burns and INF Seaver King, this roster is stacked with high end talent and unrivaled depth. The No.2 Arkansas Razorbacks won’t sneak up on anyone with a fresh stock of contributing portal arrivals and stud junior bats Kendall Diggs and Peyton Stovall returning and ace LHP Hagen Smith anchoring the rotation. The defending National Champion LSU Tigers come in at No.3 pre-season as they figure out life after Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews. Most clubs would scramble after such losses, but this club won’t skip a beat. Two-way phenom Jac Caglianone will lead the No.4 Florida Gators as he pursues another 30-homer season, and his club looks to be the last man standing in Omaha. The TCU Horned Frogs will round out the Top-5 and have proven to be major players in the portal combat. Pre-season All-Americans Anthony Silva and Payton Tolle will highlight the powerful lineup.

The ever-deep SEC has a conference leading 8 members on the pre-season list. The ACC comes in just behind them with 6 teams and the Big 12 came in with 4 designations. The evolving Pac 12 checked in with 3 clubs in the poll and the American, Big 10, Big West and Sun Belt caught one team each.

Rank	Team		Conference	2023 Record	2023 Finish	Head Coach
1		Wake Forest	ACC	(54-12)	CWS	Tom Walter
2		Arkansas	SEC	(43-18)	Fayetteville Regional	Dave Van Horn
3		LSU	SEC	(54-17)	CWS Champion	Jay Johnson
4		Florida	SEC	(54-17)	CWS Runner-Up	Kevin O'Sullivan
5		TCU	Big 12	(44-24)	CWS	Kirk Saarloos
6		Vanderbilt	SEC	(42-20)	Nashville Regional	Tim Corbin
7		Texas A&M	SEC	(38-27)	Stanford Regional	Jim Schlossnagle
8		Texas	Big 12	(42-22)	Stanford Super Regional	David Pierce
9		Oregon State	Pac 12	(41-20)	Baton Rouge Regional	Mitch Canham
10		Virginia	ACC	(50-15)	CWS	Brian O'Connor
11		Tennessee	SEC	(44-22)	CWS	Tony Vitello
12		Stanford	Pac 12	(44-20)	CWS	Dave Esquer
13		South Carolina	SEC	(42-21)	Gainesville Super Regional	Mark Kingston
14		North Carolina	ACC	(36-24)	Terre Haute Regional	Scott Forbes
15		Auburn	SEC	(34-23-1)	Auburn Regional	Butch Thompson
16		Iowa	Big 10	(44-16)	Terre Haute Regional	Rick Heller
17		East Carolina	American	(47-19)	Charlottesville Regional	Cliff Godwin
18		UCLA	Pac 12	(28-24-1)	No Postseason	John Savage
19		NC State	ACC	(36-21)	Columbia Regional	Elliott Avent
20		Kansas State	Big 12	(35-24)	No Postseason	Pete Hughes
21		Clemson	ACC	(44-19)	Clemson Regional	Erik Bakich
22		Oklahoma State	Big 12	(41-20)	Stillwater Regional	Josh Holliday
23		Duke	ACC	(39-24)	Charlottesville Super Regional	Chris Pollard
24		UC Santa Barbara	Big West	(35-20)	No Postseason	Andrew Checketts
25		Coastal Carolina	Sun Belt	(42-21)	Conway Regional	Gary Gilmore