I was looking forward to jumping on the computer yesterday morning because I was absolutely positive that the college baseball “experts” were going to come to their senses and have the Dirtbags storm up the rankings.
But I was wrong. Instead, I stared at the computer in amazement wondering what the Dirtbags would have to do to get just a little bit of love in the college baseball world.
Even though the Dirtbags (27-14, 7 -2) are in a tie for first place in the Big West Conference and have now won five straight and 13 of their last 16 games, they are still at the bottom of the college baseball polls.
The Dirtbags actually fell out of the top 30 in the Collegiate Baseball Poll. In Baseball America, Long Beach State is ranked No. 24, and in the one poll they are getting any respect in, Rivals.com, the Dirtbags are ranked No. 19.
But even No. 19 is way too low. Considering whom they have played and how LBSU has done against them, they should be ranked no lower than No. 15 – in any poll.
To say the Dirtbags have played the most difficult schedule in the country is a gross understatement. LBSU has played 27 games against teams ranked in the Baseball America top 25, eight more than any other team in the country. In those games, LBSU is an impressive 14-11, with series wins over No. 4 Texas, No. 11 Arizona State, No. 14 USC and two-game sweeps of No. 17 Pepperdine and No. 22 UCLA.
That impressive rÈsumÈ, when combined with a 13-3 record against non-ranked teams, should be enough to have the Dirtbags ranked in the top 15.
Where the Dirtbags are ranked high is in the computer rankings.
LBSU is ranked No. 9 in the Rating Percentage Index (RPI), which is a math formula that factors in strength of schedule and overall record to rank teams objectively. Hopefully the “experts” who are voting in these non-objective polls will look at the RPI and realize how far off they are in assessing the Dirtbags’ 2007 season.
In the end, all of these polls don’t mean a whole heck of a lot.
What Baseball America thinks about where LBSU should be ranked compared to other college baseball teams should be the least of LBSU’s concerns. The Dirtbags need to focus on a difficult schedule this upcoming month, which features series against Cal Poly, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton.
If the Dirtbags can win those four series and the Big West Conference, the “experts” won’t be able to ignore LBSU’much longer.
