College Top 25: April 7

Vincent Cervino

Craig Cozart

For most of the season, much of the Top-10 and especially the Top-5 teams in our poll had remained unchanged week to week. So much for that, as the first week of April had a much different story in mind with every team inside the Top-10 finds themselves in a new spot. Teams continue to grapple for position within their conferences and the national landscape continues to evolve as we are now in the second-half of the season.

The most consistent and well-balanced club in the nation to this point, the Arkansas Razorbacks (30-3), have taken over the No. 1 spot in the poll for the first time this year. They have won 14 of their last 15 games and are tied for 1st place in the SEC with an incredible (11-1) record. The Texas Longhorns (26-4) continue to impress as they swept Georgia (29-5) in Austin last weekend, are tied with Arkansas atop the SEC and find themselves at No. 2 this week. No. 3 Clemson (30-5) is up a spot after heading to the west coast and sweeping ACC foe Cal. The LSU Tigers (30-3) push themselves back up to No. 4 after a loud road sweep of Oklahoma (23-8) and didn’t allow an earned run all weekend. Tennessee (28-4) vacates the top-spot and land at No. 5 after getting swept in a doubleheader at home by Texas A&M.

Ole Miss (24-7) continues its rush up the poll and are No. 8 this week after taking care of Kentucky in their 3-game set. No. 15 Georgia Tech (26-6) prove they have staying power and went out west to sweep Stanford as they sit atop the ACC standings. Wake Forest (23-10) is also a big riser, up to No. 16, after they dismantled FSU (25-6) pitching by scoring 29 runs in their two wins. Meanwhile, we have two clubs making their season debuts on the heels of their impressive weeks. No. 24 Kansas (27-6) went on the road and swept UCF with an offensive onslaught on now lead the unpredictable Big 12 by a game. The No. 25 Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (27-5) went (2-2) on the week but lost a one-run game at Vanderbilt in the mid-week and then went on the road to win a series against previously ranked Dallas Baptist. This is the first appearance in the Top-25 for WKU since the 1998 season.

Rank	Team		Prev. Rank	Weekly	Overall
1		Arkansas	3	(4-0)	(30-3)
2		Texas	5	(3-1)	(26-4)
3		Clemson	4	(4-0)	(30-5)
4		LSU	7	(4-0)	(30-3)
5		Tennessee	1	(2-2)	(28-4)
6		Georgia	2	(1-3)	(29-5)
7		Oregon State	13	(2-1)	(22-7)
8		Ole Miss	16	(3-1)	(24-7)
9		UCLA	10	(3-1)	(25-6)
10		Florida State	6	(2-2)	(25-6)
11		West Virginia	11	(4-0)	(27-4)
12		Auburn	14	(2-2)	(22-10)
13		Alabama	8	(2-2)	(27-6)
14		UC Irvine	12	(2-2)	(23-7)
15		Georgia Tech	22	(4-0)	(26-6)
16		Wake Forest	24	(3-1)	(23-10)
17		Oregon	15	(2-2)	(22-9)
18		Troy	18	(3-1)	(24-9)
19		Coastal Carolina	19	(3-1)	(23-9)
20		Arizona	20	(2-2)	(22-9)
21		Vanderbilt	21	(4-0)	(24-8)
22		Oklahoma	9	(1-3)	(23-8)
23		North Carolina	23	(3-1)	(24-8)
24		Kansas	NR	(4-0)	(27-6)
25		Western Kentucky	NR	(2-2)	(27-5)