2017 NAIA Baseball Coaches' Top 25 Poll — Final
LCSC No. 16
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Oklahoma City holds down the No. 1 ranking in the final regular-season edition of the 2017 NAIA Baseball Coaches' Top 25 Poll, the national office announced Tuesday. The Stars, who are making their second-straight appearance at No. 1, gathered nine first-place votes and 454 total points.
Top 25 Highlights
• Oklahoma City tops the rankings for the 34th time since the start of the 2000 season. The Stars have been listed among the top five for five-straight editions since joining the poll in the first regular-season installment.
• Oklahoma City claimed its first Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) regular-season title since 2013. The Stars ended the year with a 41-8 record, including an 18-3 mark in the SAC.
• The Stars host SAGU (Texas) Friday at 11 a.m. CDT in the first round of the SAC Tournament.
• Fueled by a 13-game winning streak to end the regular-season, Bellevue (Neb.) crawls up two places to No. 2 this week. The Bruins totaled four first-place votes and 452 total points.
• Bellevue leads the NAIA with 47 victories this season.
• Rounding out the top five are No. 3 Oklahoma Wesleyan (447 points), No. 4 Faulkner (Ala.) (408 points) and No. 5 Keiser (Fla.) (399 points).
• Middle Georgia State was the biggest mover in the poll, jumping a poll-high six spots to No. 10. This is the first time in program history that the club has cracked the top 10. The Knights have won eight-straight games en route to a 40-12 record to end the regular-season.
• IU Southeast (Ind.), which moved from No. 25 to No. 21 this week, also made a significant jump in the poll. The Grenadiers enter the week with a 42-11 record and are the No. 2 seed in the River States Conference Tournament.
• Central Methodist (Mo.), which cracked the top five last week for the first time in program history dating back to 2000, dropped a poll-high 10 places to No. 15.
• Three new teams joined the Top 25: No. 23 Campbellsville (Ky.), No. 24 Biola (Calif.) and No. 25 Point (Ga.). Campbellsville is the only club among the trio that has previously been ranked in 2017. Point's most recent Top 25 mention came in 2015, while Biola is ranked for the first time since 2012.
• No. 16 Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) leads all active members with 58 total No. 1 mentions, dating back to 2000. Ten other teams have been ranked No. 1 in at least two polls: Oklahoma City (34), Faulkner (13), former member Lubbock Christian (Texas) (13), former member Embry-Riddle (Fla.) (11), Georgia Gwinnett (8), LSU Shreveport (La.) (6), former member Lee (Tenn.) (6), Cumberland (Tenn.) (6) and Tennessee Wesleyan (2).
• The Sun Conference – No. 5 Keiser and No. 8 Southeastern (Fla.) – and Southern States Athletics Conference – No. 4 Faulkner and No. 10 Middle Georgia State – are the only leagues with multiple teams ranked among the top 10.
• The Southern States Athletic Conference, Sooner Athletic Conference and The Sun Conference lead all leagues with three teams each.
• Fourteen-of-18 conferences have at least one school represented in the poll.
Poll Methodology
• The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and the Association of Independent Institutions.
• The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each voter ranks the best teams. A team receives 30 points for each first-place vote, 29 for second-place and so on through the list.
• The highest and lowest ranking for each team (a non-rating is considered a low ratings) is removed and the team's ranking will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot (including discounted ballots) that the teams appears on.
• Teams that receive only one point in the ballot are not considered “receiving votes”
• Frequency of polls occur by-weekly. This policy was approved by the National Administrative Council (NAC) for the 2016-17 academic season. This change allows raters the opportunity to consider a larger body of work between ratings periods.
• For the complete Top 25 calendar, click here.
2017 NAIA Baseball Coaches' Top 25 Poll (May 2) – Final
| RANK |
PRVS |
SCHOOL (1ST PLACE VOTES) |
2017 RECORD |
TOTAL POINTS |
| 1 |
1 |
Oklahoma City (9) |
41-8 |
454 |
| 2 |
4 |
Bellevue (Neb.) (4) |
47-7 |
452 |
| 3 |
3 |
Oklahoma Wesleyan (3) |
44-9 |
447 |
| 4 |
2 |
Faulkner (Ala.) (1) |
43-10 |
408 |
| 5 |
7 |
Keiser (Fla.) |
36-16 |
399 |
| 6 |
9 |
Clarke (Iowa) |
41-10 |
390 |
| 7 |
8 |
University of Northwestern Ohio |
39-10 |
383 |
| 8 |
11 |
Southeastern (Fla.) |
44-8 |
345 |
| 9 |
10 |
Missouri Baptist |
35-12 |
344 |
| T10 |
6 |
Tennessee Wesleyan |
35-18 |
329 |
| T10 |
16 |
Middle Georgia State |
40-12 |
329 |
| 12 |
13 |
Texas Wesleyan |
41-11 |
289 |
| 13 |
12 |
Tabor (Kan.) |
38-13 |
276 |
| 14 |
14 |
Georgia Gwinnett |
35-19 |
270 |
| 15 |
5 |
Central Methodist (Mo.) |
39-13 |
269 |
| 16 |
17 |
Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) |
35-13 |
233 |
| 17 |
15 |
Webber International (Fla.) |
36-13 |
213 |
| 18 |
19 |
Indiana Tech |
37-10 |
207 |
| 19 |
18 |
Science & Arts (Okla.) |
39-13 |
195 |
| 20 |
23 |
William Carey (Miss.) |
35-16 |
176 |
| 21 |
25 |
IU Southeast (Ind.) |
42-11 |
163 |
| 22 |
22 |
Mayville State (N.D.) |
40-9 |
132 |
| 23 |
RV |
Campbellsville (Ky.) |
31-17 |
115 |
| 24 |
RV |
Biola (Calif.) |
34-16 |
111 |
| 25 |
RV |
Point (Ga.) |
32-19 |
107 |
Dropped from Top 25: Cumberlands (Ky.) (No. 20); Bryan (Tenn.) (No. 21); Huntington (Ind.) (No. 24)
Others receiving votes: Huntington (Ind.) 71; St. Thomas (Fla.) 65; Davenport (Mich.) 64; Bryan (Tenn.) 50; Friends (Kan.) 28; Cumberlands (Ky.) 24; Hope International (Calif.) 19; Columbia (Mo.) 10; LSU Alexandria (La.) 10; Concordia (Mich.) 6; Mobile (Ala.) 4; Antelope Valley (Calif.) 4; Midland (Neb.) 4; Point Park (Pa.) 4; Reinhardt (Ga.) 3.