Is the WCC the second best baseball league in the nation?

While most of the nation is prepping for March Madness, and rightfully so, Portland’s fast start to the baseball season piqued my interest to check out one of my favorite college baseball web sites: boydsworld.com. It is a fantastic resource and very timely with updated RPI and ISR rankings, as well as some other useful information.

Like it or not, RPI is a metric used in nearly all college sports to help determine NCAA Championships at-large participants. The ISR (Iterative Strength Rankings) is Boyd Nation’s measure of a team’s quality (similar to Ken Pomeroy’s rankings for basketball on kenpom.com). Although it is early and the numbers may be skewed a bit, today’s look at the different metrics show very kindly to the West Coast Conference in baseball. Take a closer look the numbers:

Conference ISR:

1. Pac 12 (115.6)

2. WCC (113.6)

3. ACC (112.3)

4. SEC (111.7)

5. Big 12 (109.2)


Conference RPI:

1. ACC (.598)

2. SEC (.582)

3. Pac 12 (.571)

4. C-USA (.558)

5. WCC (.555)


Conference W-L Percentage

1. SEC (.745)

2. Pac 12 (.716)

3. ACC (.689)

4. WCC (.656)

5. MVC(.655)


No matter which metric you look at, the WCC is among the top five conferences in college baseball at this time. With the league only receiving one bid the NCAA playoffs in each of the last two seasons, a strong non-conference showing by the WCC’s nine teams will go a long way towards earning multiple bids in 2012. 

Portland (10-2) has matched its best start through 12 games in school history and is one of many WCC programs off to a fast start. The Pilots are individually rated No. 40 in the ISR and No. 65 in the RPI. In the ISR ratings, the WCC has four teams in the top 25 and eight of nine in the top 100. Based on the RPI, the league has four in the top 40 and seven in the top 100. 

The Pilots will have a good chance to better those numbers this week when they visit the Washington Huskies (10-9, ISR 49, RPI 64) on Tuesday at 5 p.m. Portland will then host Cal State Northridge (8-7, ISR 137, RPI 141) at Joe Etzel field for a three-game series beginning on Friday at 3 p.m.

OTHER BASEBALL NOTES: 

- Congratulations to Sr. RHP Owen Jones being named the WCC Pitcher of the Week

- The Pilots matched a school record with their 10th straight home win on Saturday

- With all but one of Monday’s major NCAA baseball polls released, no WCC teams are among the Top 25

·         Collegiate Baseball Top 30

·         Baseball America Top 25

·         NCBWA Top 25 (not released yet)

·         USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches’ Poll