Analysis
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This fall, we ranked the top 100 programs in college baseball, as they stand in 2024. For the purpose of this work, we don’t care what happened in the 1970s or 80s, or in the 90s – that is ancient history that can be gathered in 2024. Tradition is good, but it’s more important to establish a tradition of consistent winning over the last decade, and especially over the last five years. Our main goal here is to identify programs that are in the best shape right now, with an eye toward the next five to ten years.
Now it’s time to reveal the entire Top 100, in chart form. The chart below is organized by state and conference, making it easy to see how all of the top 100 programs stack up against other teams in the state and their league. A few factoids:
• The newly expanded SEC and ACC are tied for the most current members in the Top 100, with 15 each. The SEC also takes each of the top four spots on the list for the third consecutive time, as well as eight of the top ten. All 15 SEC programs on this list are within the top 40. The ACC has two top 10 programs, and 10 programs in the top 40.
• Here’s a full breakdown for each conference of how many programs made it into the Top 100, with two other newly formed conferences — the Big 12 and Big Ten — joining the ACC and SEC in the double-digit club:
15: ACC, SEC
11: Big 12
10: The Top Ten
7: The Sun Belt
5: American
4: Big West, CAA, CUSA
3: The Great East
2: ASUN, Ivy, MAC, MVC, SoCon, WCC
1: A-10, Horizon, MAAC, OVC, Patriot, Southland, Summit, WAC, Unaffiliated
• Here is a list of the states with the most programs in the Top 100. There is a three-way tie for the top, as California, North Carolina and Texas make eight programs alone on the list. That’s a decrease of two teams each in California and Texas from our 2022 list, and a decrease of one team in North Carolina:
8: California, North Carolina, Texas
7: In Florida
5: Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, Virginia
4: Georgia, Indiana, Ohio
3: Arizona, Mississippi, New York, Oklahoma
2: Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington
• Eleven teams entered the Top 100 after the release of the ranking in 2022, which is the same as the number of new participants in our 2019 work, after the number increased in 2022 by 15 new teams. Among the newcomers, Kansas State (which just came out of the regional) made the biggest vault, landing at No. 61. Other big jumps in the Top 100 include Troy (No. 65), Boston College (No. 78) and State of Kennesaw (No. 85).
• Of the teams already in the Top 100 in 2022, Southeast Missouri State made the biggest jump, gaining 32 spots to No. 68 after making its third state in four years. The other biggest climbers are Illinois (up 30 spots), San Diego (up 28), Kentucky (up 27) and UCF (up 25).
• The biggest droppers since 2022 are Baylor (down from No. 45 all the way out of the Top 100), Houston (down 35 spots), Florida Atlantic (down 27 spots), the -Southeastern Louisiana (from No. 77 to out of rankings), Rice (from No. 78 to out), Gonzaga (down 22 spots), South Alabama (down 21 spots) and and Long Beach State (bottom 20 places).
Program analysis:
Groups 1-5
Groups 6-10
Groups 11-20
Groups 21-30
Groups 31-40
Groups 41-50
Groups 51-60
Groups 61-70
Groups 71-80
Groups 81-90
Groups 91-100
2024 Top 100 College Baseball Programs
TIP: If you enter the conference name or region abbreviation in the “search” field, you can see how the programs stack up against their peers in the conference or state.
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