THE CONNING TOWER by Keith Conning: Georgia Joins The Top Five in NCAA DI National Team Rankings

By Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA

April 13, 2015

NEW ORLEANS – As eventful as this past weekend in college track & field was in terms of individual performances – including a new collegiate record plus historic marks in the combined events – the week two NCAA Division I National Team Computer Rankings released Monday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) were equally tranquil.

NCAA Division I National Team Rankings Top 5 – Men
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
Texas A&M	Florida	Oregon	LSU	Southern Cal
View Complete Men’s National Rankings

NCAA Division I National Team Rankings Top 5 – Women
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
Texas A&M	Florida	Texas	Arkansas	Georgia
View Complete Women’s National Team Rankings

Defending national champion Texas A&M’s women remained atop the rankings, followed closely by a stationary Florida at No. 2.
Each of the top six teams in the men’s rankings – led by No. 1 Texas A&M, No. 2 Florida and defending champion No. 3 Oregon – remained constant from a week ago and no new teams cracked the top 10. No. 7 Florida State was the highest-ranked team to move up, improving two slots from a week ago.
The Aggies’ and the Ducks’ women head a pack of eight teams bunched closely near the top of the rankings, which underwent some minor shuffling as athletes continued to open up their outdoor seasons. Texas and Arkansas swapped spots at No. 3 and No. 4, while Georgia moved up three spots to No. 5 behind an historic, collegiate-leading heptathlon performance from Quintunya Chapman, and collegiate-leading long and triple jump marks from frosh Keturah Orji.

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Weekend Recap

Approximately 75 points separate the defending champion Aggies at No. 1 (318.55 points) from No. 8 Oregon (244.45), which fell two spots from last time. Historically, teams with more than 200 points in the USTFCCCA rankings have gone on to contend for the NCAA title or at least one of the four podium finishes – setting up what could be a very dramatic team race at this year’s championships June 10-13 in Eugene, Oregon.
Another group of closely bunched teams extends beyond those top eight, led by top-10 newcomer Kansas State at No. 9 after heptathlete Akela Jones provided a three-spot boost. At 172 points, the Wildcats are within 35 points of No. 10 Baylor, No. 11 Florida State and No. 12 Stanford – which were all displaced one spot from a week ago to make room for KSU.
The formula used in the USTFCCCA National Team Computer Rankings does not equate to the scoring system used at the NCAA Championships, and is only meant to project how a team might fare at the NCAA Championships. For a breakdown of the system, click here.
No team in the rankings’ top-25 improved more than the North Carolina women, who jumped 19 spots to No. 22 behind heptathlete Xenia Rahn. Michigan State’s women were the next-biggest gainer, improving eight positions to No. 18.
The men’s rankings saw little movement in the top 25, and what little movement there was came only in small degrees. No. 13 South Carolina made the biggest jump of the week with a three-position improvement.
This week’s Regional Rankings were more volatile, with a third of the 18 total men’s and women’s regions ending up with a new team at No. 1.
For the men, Georgia (South Region), South Carolina (Southeast) and Oregon (West) all topped their respective regions this week, as did the women of Kansas (Midwest), Texas Tech (South Central) and Harvard (Northeast).

USTFCCCA NCAA Division I
Men’s Outdoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings (Top 25)
2015 Week #2 — April 13
next ranking: April 20

Rank	Institution	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	Texas A&M	407.87	SEC	Pat Henry (11th)	1
2	Florida	361.60	SEC	Mike Holloway (13th)	2
3	Oregon	301.77	Pac-12	Robert Johnson (3rd)	3
4	LSU	235.18	SEC	Dennis Shaver (11th)	4
5	Southern California	218.11	Pac-12	Caryl Smith Gilbert (2nd)	5
6	Texas	196.42	Big 12	Mario Sategna (2nd)	6
7	Florida State	180.81	ACC	Bob Braman (12th)	9
8	Arkansas	177.83	SEC	Chris Bucknam (7th)	7
9	Texas Tech	170.74	Big 12	Wes Kittley (16th)	10
10	Alabama	163.86	SEC	Dan Waters (4th)	8
11	Georgia	155.62	SEC	Wayne Norton (16th)	11
12	Baylor	118.70	Big 12	Todd Harbour (10th)	12
13	South Carolina	113.62	SEC	Curtis Frye (19th)	16
14	Tennessee	113.42	SEC	Beth Alford-Sullivan (1st)	13
15	Oklahoma State	107.50	Big 12	Dave Smith (7th)	15
16	Penn State	106.37	Big Ten	John Gondak (1st)	14
17	Mississippi State	89.38	SEC	Steve Dudley (5th)	18
18	Stanford	87.30	Pac-12	Chris Miltenberg (3rd)	17
19	Nebraska	85.44	Big Ten	Gary Pepin (32nd)	19
20	Arizona State	79.55	Pac-12	Greg Kraft (19th)	20
21	UCLA	74.92	Pac-12	Mike Maynard (6th)	22
22	Virginia	74.26	ACC	Bryan Fetzer (4th)	21
23	Northern Arizona	72.64	Big Sky	Eric Heins (8th)	23
24	Middle Tennessee	70.23	Conference USA	Dean Hayes (51st)	26
25	Iowa	69.74	Big Ten	Joey Woody (1st)	25
dropped out: No. 24 Kentucky
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

Men’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	SEC	1974.53	9
2	Pac-12	944.30	5
3	Big 12	789.49	4
4	Big Ten	578.19	3
5	ACC	559.69	2
6	Conference USA	293.27	1
7	American	194.29
8	Mid-American	193.47
9	Sun Belt	161.83
10	Big Sky	132.70	1

Men’s Regional Index Leaders
Region	Institution	Points	Last Week
Great Lakes	Indiana	896.60	1
Mid-Atlantic	Navy	628.57	1
Midwest	Nebraska	648.75	1
Mountain	BYU	843.22	1
Northeast	Cornell	555.62	1
South	Georgia	669.43	4
South Central	Texas A&M	1027.96	1
Southeast	South Carolina	578.76	2
West	Oregon	651.40	7
View All Regional Rankings

USTFCCCA NCAA Division I
Women’s Outdoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings (Top 25)
2015 Week #2 — April 13
next ranking: April 20

Rank	Institution	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	Texas A&M	318.55	SEC	Pat Henry (11th)	1
2	Florida	302.89	SEC	Mike Holloway (8th)	2
3	Texas	291.57	Big 12	Mario Sategna (2nd)	4
4	Arkansas	286.90	SEC	Lance Harter (25th)	3
5	Georgia	277.66	SEC	Wayne Norton (16th)	8
6	Kentucky	256.25	SEC	Edrick Floreal (3rd)	5
7	Southern California	247.38	Pac-12	Caryl Smith Gilbert (2nd)	7
8	Oregon	244.45	Pac-12	Robert Johnson (3rd)	6
9	Kansas State	172.83	Big 12	Cliff Rovelto (23rd)	12
10	Baylor	154.35	Big 12	Todd Harbour (10th)	9
11	Florida State	150.52	ACC	Bob Braman (12th)	10
12	Stanford	140.52	Pac-12	Chris Miltenberg (3rd)	11
13	Oklahoma State	126.00	Big 12	Dave Smith (6th)	13
14	LSU	111.73	SEC	Dennis Shaver (11th)	15
15	Texas Tech	95.59	Big 12	Wes Kittley (16th)	14
16	Clemson	94.81	ACC	Mark Elliott (2nd)	16
17	Missouri	93.82	SEC	Brett Halter (5th)	17
18	Michigan State	91.98	Big Ten	Walt Drenth (9th)	26
19	Alabama	89.51	SEC	Dan Waters (4th)	18
20	UCLA	87.19	Pac-12	Mike Maynard (3rd)	19
21	Virginia Tech	85.51	ACC	Dave Cianelli (14th)	21
22	North Carolina	82.71	ACC	Harlis Meaders (3rd)	41
23	Mississippi State	82.22	SEC	Steve Dudley (5th)	20
24	Boise State	81.46	Mountain West	Corey Ihmels (2nd)	24
25	Michigan	81.44	Big Ten	James Henry (30th)	23
dropped out: No. 22 NC State, No. 25 Auburn
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

Women’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	SEC	2030.39	9
2	Big 12	1026.63	5
3	Pac-12	927.90	4
4	ACC	766.83	4
5	Big Ten	498.10	2
6	Mid-American	184.06
7	Mountain West	147.00	1
8	American	143.75
9	Big East	138.87
10	Ivy	104.82

Women’s Regional Index Leaders
Region	Institution	Points	Last Week
Great Lakes	Purdue	618.04	1
Mid-Atlantic	Penn State	688.42	1
Midwest	Kansas	538.60	3
Mountain	Texas Tech	767.35	2
Northeast	Harvard	620.71	2
South	Florida	536.40	1
South Central	Arkansas	1000.23	1
Southeast	Kentucky	755.57	1
West	Southern California	782.32	1
View All Regional Rankings