Are preseason Top 25 baseball rankings going the way of every other poll in college sports? Yes, and you’ll see why after you compare, as we did three that have just been released. We focus on the ACC but you should also take a look at the complete rankings. We think you’ll come to the same conclusion that we did and that is that NIL and the Transfer Portal have played havoc with baseball as much as every other college sport. What this means is what once was is no longer and that definitely applies in ranking teams.
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There’s a clear lack of application of these factors and more so in some. Rarely will teams carry over the same personnel and magic that these combinations had from year to year. So it’s simple, we’ll offer these up but don’t put money on the same teams being where they are ranked now in three to four weeks. You can call it fodder for water cooler talk or simply click-bait designed to deliver traffic.
Baseball
We’ll present three polls. One from D1 Baseball, another from Perfect Game and the last from Prospects Live. You’ll want to also take a look at an earlier post, ‘Baseball America’s ’26 Season Favorites‘ to further flesh out where your favorite team stands in the eyes of pundits.
Preseason Top 25 – ACC Baseball
| D1 BASEBALL | PERFECT GAME | PROSPECTS LIVE |
| #1 UCLA | LSU | LSU |
| #2 LSU | Georgia Tech | Texas |
| #3 Texas | Tennessee | UCLA |
| #4 Mississippi State | Arkansas | Arkansas |
| #5 Georgia Tech | UCLA | Tennessee |
| #8 Louisville | #9 Florida State | #7 Florida State |
| #11 North Carolina | #14 Virginia | #9 North Carolina |
| #16 Florida State | #16 Louisville | #12 Georgia Tech |
| #17 NC State | #18 North Carolina | #14 Virginia |
| #19 Clemson | #20 Clemson | #17 Clemson |
| #21 Wake Forest | #22 NC State | #18 Louisville |
| #22 Miami | #24 Miami | #23 Wake Forest |
The highest preseason ranked team from the ACC is Georgia Tech. If you listened to the Baseball America podcast there was full throated support of the Yellow Jackets to the point of even picking them as the top team. Perfect Game reflects Baseball America with a spot at No. 2, D1 Baseball places the Ramblin Wreck at No. 5 and Prospects Live isn’t as inclined to give an inch in the top 5 placing Georgia Tech at No. 12.
Perfect Game and Prospects Live place Virginia at No. 14 while D1 Baseball doesn’t place the Wahoos in their Top 25. NC State misses out on the Prospects Live poll, Wake Forest is a no show in the Perfect Game Top 25 and Miami is absent from Prospects Live as well.
The noticeable variations in where teams land in each poll is a clear example of running with how a team performed the previous year and/or team/conference reputation. It’s a dangerous place to start when you want to be taken seriously.
