The new ITA rankings are out and Oklahoma is back at the top spot due to its 5 Top 20 wins over USC, Baylor, Ole Miss, Wake Forest, and North Carolina. The Sooners will have a chance to buffer the resume this Friday when they play at #8 Ohio State. A win over the Buckeyes would bump the Wake Forest win and give OU an even bigger cushion at #1.
Duke moves up 2 spots to #2 as a result of its 5 Top 20 wins over Illinois, Ole Miss, TCU, Wake Forest, and Northwestern with the road wins at Illinois and Northwestern adding in the extra 10% bonus. Duke’s only match this week is at #44 Virginia Tech so they’ll still have the same best 5 wins for next week’s rankings and while Illinois and Northwestern stayed in the same spot, Ole Miss came up 1 spot, TCU came up 2, and Wake dropped 8.
Illinois holds firm at #3 with it also having 5 Top 20 wins over Baylor, Ohio State, Cal, Notre Dame, and North Carolina with the win over Baylor in Waco. Illinois is off for the next 2 weeks so they won’t be able to add to the win column so any ranking change next week would be due to their best wins going up or down in the rankings. Baylor, Ohio State, and North Carolina stayed the same this week while Cal dropped 4 spots and Notre Dame dropped 9 spots.
Georgia moves up to #4 off the strength of a pair of road wins over the weekend against Florida and Auburn. In my projections I had Georgia at 5 because I forgot to give them the 10% road bonus for the win at Auburn (sorry guys) – those extra points were enough to push them pass Baylor. Georgia’s other best wins are against Illinois, Columbia, and UCLA and even though Columbia fell 2 spots this week, UCLA came up 5, plus Florida came up 6 spots. Georgia hosts #10 Texas A&M this Friday so a win would bump their 5th best win (Auburn) and give the Bulldogs a nice points jump.
Baylor holds firm at #5 with 5 Top 30 wins over Duke, Virginia twice, UCLA, and Drake. While Virginia dropped 1 spot in this week’s rankings Duke came up 2 spots, UCLA came up 5 spots, and Drake came up 5 spots so Baylor has the potential to move up next week. BU also plays TCU tonight so a win over Horned Frogs would replace Drake as it’s 5th best win which would be an even bigger points bump.
USC drops down from #1 to #6 with the Tulsa loss accounting for 3 spots. USC’s 5 best wins right now are against Georgia (twice), Ohio State, Florida, and Stanford. The Trojans face #32 San Diego on Thursday so a win there would bump the Stanford win. USC will pick up some more points next week with Georgia coming up 3 spots and Florida coming up 6 plus the loss to Tulsa won’t hurt as much with Tulsa climbing 25 spots. They’ll be a good chance that USC will be back in the top 5 next week.
Texas drops 1 spot to #7 and the Longhorns are off this week. Texas’s 5 best wins are over Columbia, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Florida State, and Minnesota though with Tulsa jumping up to 26 that road win will push the Minnesota win out for next week’s rankings.
Ohio State holds firm at #8 but has a big chance to move up next week with the Buckeyes hosting #1 Oklahoma on Friday. Ohio State’s 5 best wins were against Texas, South Florida, Notre Dame, Auburn, and Penn State. The Tulsa win from earlier in the year will bump Penn State for next week’s rankings and a win over Oklahoma would bump the Auburn win out.
Ole Miss comes up 1 spot to #9 after picking up a nice win over Vanderbilt on Sunday. The Rebels 5 best wins are against Florida (road), Vanderbilt, UCLA, South Carolina, and Tulane. Ole Miss plays at #48 Mississippi State this Thursday so a win in Starkville would bump the Tulane win.
Texas A&M comes in at #10 with its 5 best wins against Oklahoma, Ohio State, San Diego, Tennessee, and Kentucky. I wasn’t sure at the time but Texas A&M’s win over Tennessee which started on Sunday but finished on Monday due to weather did count in this week’s rankings – I originally thought only matches completed by Sunday night would count but I guess since it started on Sunday it was allowed to go in. The Aggies have a chance to gain ground this week when they go to #4 Georgia and #40 South Carolina.
Projecting these rankings was a little tougher because several teams in the Top 40 didn’t have 5 wins over Top 75 opponents and I underestimated points on Kentucky, Troy, George Washington, Rice, East Tennessee State, and a few others which caused some of the points to be off. These next 2 rankings should be a little easier to be accurate due to several schools picking up more quality wins with each week.
Here is the ITA’s release
Here is CTO’s Coaches Poll release
| Men’s National Team Rankings | |||
| Administered by the ITA | |||
| NCAA Division I Tennis | |||
| March 3, 2015 | |||
| Rank | Avg | School | Previous Week |
| 1 | 80.25 | University of Oklahoma | 2 |
| 2 | 77.06 | Duke University | 4 |
| 3 | 72.64 | University of Illinois | 3 |
| 4 | 69.40 | University of Georgia | 7 |
| 5 | 68.85 | Baylor University | 5 |
| 6 | 61.75 | University of Southern California | 1 |
| 7 | 60.00 | University of Texas | 6 |
| 8 | 58.57 | Ohio State University | 8 |
| 9 | 52.40 | University of Mississippi | 10 |
| 10 | 51.89 | Texas A&M University | 9 |
| 11 | 41.02 | University of Florida | 17 |
| 12 | 39.10 | University of Virginia | 11 |
| 13 | 38.59 | TCU | 15 |
| 14 | 35.80 | Vanderbilt University | 16 |
| 15 | 35.72 | Columbia University | 13 |
| 16 | 35.40 | UCLA | 21 |
| 17 | 34.86 | University of South Florida | 24 |
| 18 | 34.84 | Harvard University | 22 |
| 19 | 34.48 | North Carolina | 19 |
| 20 | 34.22 | Wake Forest University | 12 |
| 21 | 33.61 | Northwestern University | 20 |
| 22 | 31.31 | California | 18 |
| 23 | 30.02 | University of Notre Dame | 14 |
| 24 | 29.44 | Drake University | 29 |
| 25 | 27.49 | Princeton University | 23 |
| 26 | 27.48 | University of Tulsa | 51 |
| 27 | 26.23 | Indiana University-Bloomington | 36 |
| 28 | 25.85 | Louisiana State University | 31 |
| 29 | 25.26 | Florida State University | 26 |
| 30 | 25.01 | Texas Tech University | 32 |
| 31 | 24.86 | North Carolina State | 27 |
| 32 | 23.12 | University of San Diego | 30 |
| 33 | 22.71 | University of Louisville | 38 |
| 34 | 20.68 | University of Minnesota | 33 |
| 35 | 20.49 | Auburn University | 28 |
| 36 | 19.56 | Dartmouth College | 50 |
| 37 | 19.05 | Oklahoma State University | 25 |
| 38 | 18.72 | Stanford University | 37 |
| 39 | 17.83 | University of Pennsylvania | 44 |
| 40 | 16.63 | University of South Carolina | 34 |
| 41 | 16.39 | Penn State University | 39 |
2 Comments | |||
A team only gets the 10% bonus if its a true road win. Since the NTI's were in Chicago and not on campus in Champaign then it goes in as a neutral court win and those do not get the 10% bonus.
Did UGA's win over Illinois get the 10% bonus since IL was the host and it took place in IL? <br />I really appreciate the work you put into this site, but I wouldn't expect anything less from a UGA guy. I don't want to thank you, I do thank you.