RE: Best non Power 5 baseball programs.
The use of "power" to describe baseball conferences is clearly awkward — for multiple reasons.
Regarding the P5 in football and as it relates to baseball, the SEC has become dominant in the sport the past 10 years — thus creating a separation. And the Big Ten is as strong as it should be given its powerful position in college sports. The ACC is likely No. 2 but the Pac-12 offers various quality programs. The Big 12 is very solid.
The American and Big West have also been strong — and nationally relevant — historically.
After the "top seven," it dips a bit.
DI Baseball did a top 100 programs of the past 10 years (as I interpret it) in 2019. The findings:
• The SEC leads all conferences with 14 teams in the Top 100. This marks the first time any conference has placed each of its members in the Top 100. The SEC also occupies each of the top four spots in the rankings. Six SEC teams landed in the top 11, and 10 SEC teams are in the top 30.
• Here’s the full conference-by-conference breakdown: ACC (12 of 14 teams landed in the Top 100), Pac-12 (9 of 11), Big Ten (8 of 13), Big 12 (7 of 9), American (6 of 9), Big West (5 of 9), Conference USA (5 of 12), WCC (4 of 10), Sun Belt (4 of 12), Mountain West (3 of 7), Missouri Valley (3 of 8).
* The A-10, Atlantic Sun, Big East, Big South, CAA, Horizon and Southland had two teams apiece in the Top 100, while the NEC, OVC, Patriot, SoCon, Summit and WAC landed one team apiece on the list.
* Overall, 24 different conferences are represented.
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