THE CONNING TOWER by Keith Conning: Southern Cal Women Take Over DI Rankings Amid Mid-Season Shuffle

By Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA

April 27, 2015

NEW ORLEANS – Fans of collegiate track & field saw the “Edward Cheserek effect” at its peak in the Penn Relays 4xMile Relay this weekend, and now the phenomenon has manifested itself in a different way beyond the track.
Week four of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings has historically been moving week; this is when preseason marks (from 2014 or earlier) are removed from the formula that determines the rankings – making it an indication of which teams have performed the best this current season.

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

NCAA Division I National Team Rankings Top 5 – Women
1)	2)	3)	4)	5)
Southern Cal	Arkansas	Florida	Kentucky	Georgia
View Complete Women’s National Team Rankings

Most of those preseason marks are gone. Most, but not all.
For the first time in rankings history, preseason marks for the 5000 meters and 10,000 meters will remain in the formula for the duration of the season to attempt to more accurately project the NCAA Championships team races. (Combined event marks also remained, as is customary).
Why? Because defending national champion Oregon’s duo of Cheserek and Eric Jenkins – who this year alone were second and first at 5000 meters indoors and went 1-2 in cross country, but whose lone regular season objective outdoors has been to expend as little energy as possible in attaining qualifying times – are currently ranked 59th and 60th at 5000 meters and 22nd and 23rd at 10,000 meters, respectively, based on 2015 results alone.
Using the new formula, Jenkins is still No. 24 at 10,000 meters, but Cheserek jumped up to a far more accurate No. 1 at 5000 meters and No. 2 at 10,000 meters (an event in which he is the defending national champion), while Jenkins moved up to No. 2 at 5000.

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Even with the change, the Ducks slid down to the periphery of the top five, checking in at No. 5 (though additional X-factors remain for the Ducks in terms of these rankings: a fast 10k for Jenkins, and fast performances for indoor standouts like Will Geoghegan, Johnny Gregorek and Daniel Winn). Without those 2014 performances, Oregon would have fallen beyond the top six.
Texas A&M remained atop the men’s rankings with 356.76 team ranking points, followed by the closely bunched foursome of No. 2 LSU (295.40), No. 3 Florida (282.64), No. 4 Southern California (248.10), and Oregon (246.33). LSU improved two spots and was the biggest beneficiary of utilizing (mostly) only 2015 marks, while the potential held by Jenkins, Geoghegan, Winn and Gregorek could easily surge the Oregon Ducks forward by year’s end.
For all the attention surrounding the Oregon men, the women’s team race was the one most impacted by the removal of preseason data.
Southern California (328.43 team points) ascended to No. 1 for the first time in the eight-year history of the rankings, jumping up three positions from a week ago. Behind the Women of Troy – whose best position prior to Monday had been a No. 3 preseason rank in 2012 – was a top ten that features eight teams in new positions – though all of them remain very much in the hunt for national team honors.
Reigning indoor national team champion Arkansas (306) charged to No. 2 – another three spot improvement – to displace Florida (264.52) down a spot to No. 3.
Though Kentucky’s point total of 247.33 remained relatively unchanged, the Wildcats made the biggest jump in terms of positioning with a four-spot improvement to No. 4, while Georgia (241.93) climbed two spots to round out the top five.
The list of title/podium (top-four) contenders doesn’t stop there, though. Historically, teams with more than 200 points have been strong contenders for, if not the national title, the team podium. This week, that list also includes No. 6 Oregon (211.92), No. 7 Texas (209.94) after a four-spot drop, No. 8 LSU (208.40) after a seven-spot rise, and defending national champion No. 9 Texas A&M (194.82), which plummeted from No. 1 to the outskirts of the team race.
The Aggies’ fall from the top came as many of the athletes who were vital to their 2014 success have yet to find their stride in 2015, causing the fall from No. 1 in the nation to the sixth-highest ranked team in the SEC.
Rounding out the top-10 was Kansas State.
Making the biggest jump into the top 25 for either gender were the men of No. 19 Clemson, who improved 39 spots from a week ago. The men of No. 17 Illinois and No. 24 Arizona also made impressive gains, improving 28 and 22 spots, respectively.
Only one women’s team inside the top 25 improved by double-digit positions, as 2013 national champion Kansas gained 12 spots to check in at No. 17.
Change was harder to come by at the top of the Regional Team Index. Of the nine regions for both men and women, only the South saw new No. 1 teams for both genders – the Florida men and women – while Cornell’s men took over the Northeast and Kansas State’s women moved to No. 1 in the Midwest.
The NCAA Division I Championships will be contested June 10-13 in Eugene, Oregon. All four days will be televised live on the ESPN family of networks – including ESPN on June 12 and ESPN2 on June 13 – for a total of 12 hours, plus an additional 23 hours of live online coverage via ESPN3.

USTFCCCA NCAA Division I
Men’s Outdoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings (Top 25)
2015 Week #4 — April 27
next ranking: May 4

Rank	Institution	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	Texas A&M	356.76	SEC	Pat Henry (11th)	1
2	LSU	295.40	SEC	Dennis Shaver (11th)	4
3	Florida	282.64	SEC	Mike Holloway (13th)	2
4	Southern California	248.10	Pac-12	Caryl Smith Gilbert (2nd)	5
5	Oregon	246.33	Pac-12	Robert Johnson (3rd)	3
6	Texas Tech	184.76	Big 12	Wes Kittley (16th)	10
7	Texas	149.26	Big 12	Mario Sategna (2nd)	6
8	Virginia	146.38	ACC	Bryan Fetzer (4th)	16
9	Alabama	143.62	SEC	Dan Waters (4th)	9
10	Georgia	143.15	SEC	Wayne Norton (16th)	11
11	Baylor	129.69	Big 12	Todd Harbour (10th)	12
12	Arkansas	128.92	SEC	Chris Bucknam (7th)	7
13	Mississippi State	107.03	SEC	Steve Dudley (5th)	18
14	South Carolina	102.32	SEC	Curtis Frye (19th)	14
15	Penn State	99.72	Big Ten	John Gondak (1st)	15
16	BYU	94.27	Independent	Ed Eyestone (2nd)	20
17	Illinois	91.63	Big Ten	Mike Turk (6th)	45
18	Tennessee	89.65	SEC	Beth Alford-Sullivan (1st)	13
19	Clemson	85.67	ACC	Mark Elliott (2nd)	58
20	Florida State	83.51	ACC	Bob Braman (12th)	8
21	Syracuse	82.50	ACC	Chris Fox (10th)	25
22	Villanova	79.60	Big East	Marcus O’Sullivan (15th)	35
23	TCU	77.02	Big 12	Darryl Anderson (11th)	38
24	Arizona	76.21	Pac-12	Fred Harvey (13th)	46
25	Akron	75.28	Mid-American	Dennis Mitchell (20th)	32
dropped out: No. 17 Oklahoma State, No. 19 Nebraska, No. 21 UTEP, No. 22 Arizona State, No. 23 UCLA, No. 24 Stanford
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

Men’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	SEC	1805.38	9
2	Pac-12	892.55	3
3	Big 12	743.51	4
4	ACC	665.27	4
5	Big Ten	513.44	2
6	Conference USA	255.63
7	Mid-American	244.60	1
8	Sun Belt	192.63
9	Big East	147.65	1
10	American	142.64

Men’s Regional Index Leaders
Region	Institution	Points	Last Week
Great Lakes	Indiana	713.93	1
Mid-Atlantic	Princeton	749.82	1
Midwest	Nebraska	620.07	1
Mountain	Texas Tech	833.74	1
Northeast	Cornell	610.84	2
South	Florida	737.90	2
South Central	Texas A&M	921.79	1
Southeast	Virginia	598.87	1
West	Oregon	913.48	1
View All Regional Rankings

USTFCCCA NCAA Division I
Women’s Indoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings (Top 25)
2015 Week #4 — April 27
next ranking: May 4

Rank	Institution	Points	Conference	Head Coach (Yr)	Last Week
1	Southern California	328.43	Pac-12	Caryl Smith Gilbert (2nd)	4
2	Arkansas	306.00	SEC	Lance Harter (25th)	5
3	Florida	264.52	SEC	Mike Holloway (8th)	2
4	Kentucky	247.33	SEC	Edrick Floreal (3rd)	8
5	Georgia	241.93	SEC	Wayne Norton (16th)	7
6	Oregon	211.92	Pac-12	Robert Johnson (3rd)	6
7	Texas	209.94	Big 12	Mario Sategna (2nd)	3
8	LSU	208.40	SEC	Dennis Shaver (11th)	15
9	Texas A&M	194.82	SEC	Pat Henry (11th)	1
10	Kansas State	155.07	Big 12	Cliff Rovelto (23rd)	10
11	Baylor	142.00	Big 12	Todd Harbour (10th)	9
12	Texas Tech	128.81	Big 12	Wes Kittley (16th)	18
13	Michigan State	117.01	Big Ten	Walt Drenth (9th)	14
14	North Carolina	110.80	ACC	Harlis Meaders (3rd)	23
15	Clemson	107.58	ACC	Mark Elliott (2nd)	19
16	Notre Dame	99.97	ACC	Alan Turner (1st)	24
17	Kansas	96.16	Big 12	Stanley Redwine (15th)	29
18	Florida State	95.25	ACC	Bob Braman (12th)	13
19	Virginia Tech	94.70	ACC	Dave Cianelli (14th)	16
20	Alabama	91.68	SEC	Dan Waters (4th)	17
21	Oklahoma State	87.27	Big 12	Dave Smith (6th)	11
22	Mississippi State	85.20	SEC	Steve Dudley (5th)	28
23	Oklahoma	83.98	Big 12	Jim VanHootegem (2nd)	32
24	Missouri	82.34	SEC	Brett Halter (5th)	21
25	Michigan	79.80	Big Ten	James Henry (30th)	26
dropped out: No. 12 Stanford, No. 20 Iona, No. 22 UCLA, No. 25 Boise State
View All Teams Beyond the Top 25

Women’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank	Conference	Points	Top 25 Teams
1	SEC	1980.10	9
2	Big 12	922.75	7
3	Pac-12	899.07	2
4	ACC	807.64	5
5	Big Ten	581.68	2
6	Ivy	162.53
7	Mid-American	153.96
8	American	147.88
9	Mountain West	132.10
10	Missouri Valley	127.43

Women’s Regional Index Leaders
Region	Institution	Points	Last Week
Great Lakes	Michigan State	658.89	1
Mid-Atlantic	Penn State	808.33	1
Midwest	Kansas State	579.73	2
Mountain	Texas Tech	777.40	1
Northeast	Harvard	638.59	1
South	Florida	645.33	3
South Central	Arkansas	970.72	1
Southeast	Kentucky	771.71	1
West	Oregon	801.28	1
View All Regional Rankings