Softball America Composite Rankings: Week 5

The below rankings are not indicative of the Softball America Top 25. The Softball America composite rankings will average all major College Softball polls. This week, RPI and KPI are both included for the first time to include a human and computer component. All stats include games played from Monday to Sunday each week and do not include Tuesday’s games.

Conference Play Gets Started with a Bang

Several high-profile conference matchups impacted this week’s rankings. Most notably, the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 conferences took center stage. Teams like Oklahoma, Florida, Duke, and Virginia Tech got off to hot starts. Conversely, Arizona, Texas A&M, and Clemson missed some prime opportunities for some home series momentum. Let’s see how those series and more impacted this week’s Composite Rankings.

Get Out of Here, Ball

The Home Run hitting early in the season has been astonishing as seven of our top 25 teams have already eclipsed 40 home runs. However, three teams in particular have a great opportunity to enhance that over the next few weeks. Nebraska has 53 home runs and faces a tough test against Ohio State this weekend. However, after that, they won’t face another top-25 team for the remainder of the regular season. Similarly, UCLA has hit 44 long balls. They face Purdue, Iowa, and Maryland over the next three weeks, so expect those numbers to skyrocket. Finally, Oregon, which is off to a fantastic start, has 40 round-trippers. They travel to Seattle this weekend to face Washington. But the next couple of weeks against Illinois and Rutgers could pad some stats.

Just a Little Concerned Going Forward

As the competition gets tougher, the need for quality outings in the circle is more critical. Duke, Auburn, and Stanford are a few teams that need to see improvement if they have long postseason aspirations. Cassidy Curd has seen her ERA jump up to 3.53 and the team ERA is now 3.22 as a result. With matchups against Syracuse, Liberty and Florida State looming that importance is greater than ever.

Auburn struggled in their first SEC series of the year as they were swept by Mississippi State. The Tigers gave up 21 runs in the series. SJ Guerin is the only starter with more than five innings that has an ERA below 2.00. Guerin has thrown 48% of the pitches that the Auburn staff has thrown. With a very challenging slate that includes Texas A&M, Texas and Florida over the next three weeks the Tigers may go as far as Guerin can take them.

Lastly, Stanford has been the anthesis of years past. This year the offense is leading the way and the staff ERA is over 3.00. The Cardinal have started off 5-1 in conference play. And, they do have a favorable schedule over the next few weeks. However, it will be intriguing to see much improvement can be made in the circle over that time.

Biggest Computer versus Human Ranking Impacts

There’s been a spirited debate this week around who should be the number one team in the country. Oklahoma and Texas lead the way from a human poll perspective with the Sooners having a narrow margin of a 1.25 human poll ranking over Texas with a 1.75 human poll ranking. But, it is interesting to note that the computers don’t love the Sooners and the Longhorns to that degree. Between the RPI and KPI ratings both teams rank outside the top 10 with Oklahoma landing at 11 and Texas landing at 12 respectively.

A couple of other interesting case studies are Oregon and Tennessee. The Ducks are at 8 across the board with the human voters. But, the computer rankings have Oregon at 21.5. Similarly, Tennessee has a 22.5 computer ranking but fresh over their series win over Georgia the human polls have them at an aggregate of 7. As things like Strength of Schedule, Quadrant one wins, Quadrant four losses become more important it will be interesting to track where the two metrics divide.

Most Impressive and Most Disappointing

UCF makes it’s first entrance into the composite rankings debuting at #23. The Knights were impressive in their series win over one the hottest teams in the country in Arizona. Tennessee jumped from 16 to 10 in this weeks rankings after winning two of three against Georgia. The Volunteers will step out of conference play this weekend against Connecticut. The Huskies bolster an RPI of 77 which will not do any favors for Tennessee’s strength of schedule. However, the remainder of SEC play should be able to make up for that nicely.

Florida State technically didn’t move any as they are still at #9. But, the Seminoles lost a pair to Oregon this week in which they were shut out twice. Florida State’s 2-5 record against Quadrant one teams could become problematic down the stretch. A weekend series against Pittsburgh will do nothing to change that. However, next week the Seminoles should have four more opportunities for a bump with a midweek tilt with Alabama and a weekend series against Duke.

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