1/25 Oracle/ITA Rankings Released

Tagged with: Rankings

The latest Oracle/ITA Top 25 is out and as expected there was a good bit of movement on the men’s side while there wasn’t much movement on the women’s side but more than I expected. The men’s top three stayed the same with Virginia, Wake Forest, and Ohio State retaining their spots while the losses of Texas and TCU caused some movement between 4 and 10. Cal, Georgia, and UCLA each slid up a spot to 4, 5, and 6 while North Carolina and USC jumped two spots to 7 and 8. Texas’s loss at Tulsa dropped them from 4 to 9 while TCU’s loss to Northwestern dropped them from 7 to 12. Northwestern moved up 3 spots from 13 to 10 but in my opinion they should been higher since they had a quality win while most above them haven’t played anyone of substance. For those that missed it, I made my projections yesterday with that post also including all of last week’s top 25 results. 

Other notables movements were Oklahoma dropping from 12 to 16 following the 7-0 loss to Wake Forest, Arkansas falling from 19 to 25 after losing to both Texas and SMU, and SMU entering the poll at No. 23 after its road win over Arkansas. Michigan jumped past Mississippi State for No. 19 with the committee evidently valuing Michigan’s 4-0 win over Alabama more than Mississippi State’s 5-2 win at San Diego State. I thought Kentucky’s wins over Notre Dame and Duke would move them past Oklahoma State but they stayed one spot behind the Cowboys. 

I honestly didn’t expect any changes in the women’s top 25 due to everyone winning and/or not playing yet. The top 20 stayed the same but there was movement from 21 to 25. Arizona State and Texas A&M swapped spots at 21 and 22 which was a little strange because both won pretty easily over the weekend with ASU defeating UC Davis 7-0 and TAMU defeating Stephen F. Austin 5-2 with one of the singles losses coming in a 10-point supertiebreak after TAMU clinched at 4-1.

Virginia, which was ranked 23 last week, dropped out after beating Boston College 4-3. I was surprised at that drop because BC was a top 75 team last year and they returned four starters; if UVA had scheduled a “cupcake” to open up and won 6-1 would they have been dropped – I doubt. Other changes included Mississippi State and UCLA coming up a spot to 23 and 24 and Northwestern entering at 25 after picking up a 6-1 win over Harvard. 

As a reminder these rankings are done by the vote of the 14-member national ranking committee. Check out the ITA’s release for a breakdown by conference plus they put together a couple of nice videos as well. 

 

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