Nebraska Baseball: #11 since 1999
According to the experts at Baseball America, Nebraska has really risen to national prominence since the onset of the 64 team field in 1999.
Unsurprisingly, Texas is ranked #1, with Miami, Stanford, Cal State Fullerton and Rice rounding out the top five.
If you’re a BA subscriber, you can see the complete rankings with stats here. In deference to Baseball America, I won’t bypass their system and post the complete results, but I will snip out one line.
Nebraska has passed some traditional powers like Arizona State, Long Beach State and Wichita State. All were ranked in the top 15 in BA’s study in 1997.
Worth noting is that Nebraska has moved up no less than 51 spots since 1997, from #62 to #11. Also, they’re the top-ranked “Northern” team, with only Notre Dame and Wichita State making the top 25.
The northern-most team that’s ranked above Nebraska? According to my oh-so-scientific study using Google Earth…
It’s Stanford. Which really doesn’t count, since it’s on the ocean in California.