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College baseball rankings: FanSided Top 25 – Arkansas moves into top 5

By Ethan Lee

OMAHA, NE - JUNE 28: The Arkansas Razorbacks warm up before taking on the Oregon State Beavers during the Division I Men's Baseball Championship held at TD Ameritrade Park on June 28, 2018 in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Justin Tafoya/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
OMAHA, NE - JUNE 28: The Arkansas Razorbacks warm up before taking on the Oregon State Beavers during the Division I Men's Baseball Championship held at TD Ameritrade Park on June 28, 2018 in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Justin Tafoya/NCAA Photos via Getty Images) /
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The Arkansas Razorbacks make a big leap up in the FanSided college baseball rankings after demolishing the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Fayetteville.

The top three college baseball teams in the country this week all belong to the Pac-12. UCLA, unsurprisingly, is still the top-ranked college baseball team with Stanford and Oregon State just behind the Bruins.

From there, the Georgia Bulldogs sit at No. 4 and then the Arkansas Razorbacks, fresh off of a dominant sweep of the Mississippi State Bulldogs, claims the No. 5 spot. The Vanderbilt Commodores are at No. 6, the Arizona State Sun Devils at No. 7, the Mississippi State Bulldogs at No. 8, the Texas A&M Aggies come in at No. 9, and then UC Santa Barbara finishes out the top 10 at No. 10.

So, while the Pac-12 may not be an amazingly deep conference in terms of talent right now, the conference is still holding its own when it comes to dominating the college baseball rankings.

FanSided Top 25 college baseball rankings – Top 25

  1. UCLA
  2. Stanford
  3. Oregon State
  4. Georgia
  5. Arkansas
  6. Vanderbilt
  7. Arizona State
  8. Mississippi State
  9. UC Santa Barbara
  10. Texas A&M
  11. North Carolina State
  12. East Carolina
  13. Louisville
  14. Georgia Tech
  15. Texas Tech
  16. Auburn
  17. Michigan
  18. UC Irvine
  19. Ole Miss
  20. Indiana
  21. Tennessee
  22. North Carolina
  23. Oklahoma State
  24. West Virginia
  25. BYU

Teams on the rise

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are a rather interesting team. Recently, the Yellow Jackets dispatched of Auburn with relative ease during a midweek game and then took a series from the Virginia Tech Hokies.

And the Yellow Jackets have started climbing up in the rankings over the past few weeks.

Georgia Tech will have a great chance to prove that it belongs in the top 10 when it plays the Georgia Bulldogs on Tuesday. If the Yellow Jackets can beat their in-state rival, then even more eyes will be on them heading into the home stretch of the season.

Other teams that have improved lately: Tennessee, BYU, West Virginia, Oklahoma State, and Indiana all look pretty good right now. They’re all breaking into the rankings this week and they’ve all got plenty of upcoming opportunities to prove that they should be ranked higher.

Teams sliding down

The Mississippi State Bulldogs have struggled against tough competition from Southeastern Conference foes. While the Bulldogs are a very respectable 32-9 on the season, they’re only 10-8 in the SEC.

And yes, the SEC is an incredibly deep and talented conference this year (and most years), but that doesn’t totally excuse the Bulldogs’ struggles. MSU was swept in humiliating fashion by the Arkansas Razorbacks this past weekend, dropped a winnable series against LSU at home by being blown out in game three, and needed to score 20 runs in game three against Auburn to win that series.

So yeah, the Bulldogs are a good team, they still have a top 10 team, but Chris Lemonis needs to find a way to win more consistently against other good teams if MSU hopes to make it back to Omaha.

Other teams that have struggled lately: North Carolina State (lost a series to Wake Forest), Ole Miss (lost a series to Auburn), and Clemson (currently on a seven-game losing streak after being swept by Florida State, losing a tightly contested midweek game against a very good Georgia team, and then being swept by Duke).