D-I Top Teams Before NCAA Indoor Meet Are Defending Champs Florida Men, Oregon Women

NEW ORLEANS – Defending NCAA Division I indoor championship teams – Florida’s men and Oregon’s women – claim the top spot in the final regular-season national computer rankings compiled by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). Despite being outflanked by No. 2 LSU 15-13 in total number of entries for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, the Gator men have each of their entrants seeded in the top eight of their respective events. The No. 1 Oregon women (14 entries) will also have No. 2 LSU (13) along with No. 3 Texas (12) among the challengers for the team crown.

PDFs: Top 25 | Full by Team | Event-by-Event | Week-by-Week
Previous Rankings | Rankings Guidelines & Rationale
Regional Index: Top 15 Teams by Region

NCAA Championships Field Summary: By Team | By Conference

NCAA.com Championships Page

The national championships will be held this weekend, March 11-12 in College Station, Texas, and will be hosted by Texas A&M. Live coverage can be found on NCAA.com and ESPN3.com. ESPN2 will air tape-delayed coverage of the meet on Wednesday, March 16. This week’s rankings reflect those who declared and were accepted into the national-championship field.

Men’s No. 1 Florida, No. 2 LSU and No. 3 Arkansas will go head-to-head in many events – namely sprints, hurdles, and jumps. In the long and triple jumps, the top three nationally-ranked teams will have a combined six participants in events. No. 4 Texas A&M improved three spots from the previous week in qualifying key components in the 400 and 800 meters in the season’s final days. The Aggies will lead all teams with a meet-high seven entries in the sprint and hurdle events, followed by LSU (6) and Florida (5). No. 6 Indiana leads the field with five entries in distance events while LSU (6) and No. 10 Nebraska (5) are tops in the jump entries. Arkansas is the only school with both 4×400 and DMR squads slated to compete.

Florida (57) won last year’s indoor national title – their first in school history – with a 13-point victory over runners-up Oregon and Texas A&M (44). Mike Holloway’s squad returns reigning national champs Jeff Demps in the 60 meters and Christian Taylor in the triple jump. LSU will attempt to win their first crown since 2004 and their third overall. No. 3 Arkansas will go for their first indoor national title since 2006 with a possible 20th indoor crown. No. 4 Texas A&M is looking for their first indoor national title in school history to go with their back-to-back current titles outdoors.

Oregon’s top-ranked women will have a meet-high 14 entries into the national meet and claim top seeds in the mile (Jordan Hasay) and pentathlon (Brianne Theisen). Hasay, a sophomore, will attempt the rare mile-3000 double, entering the meet as the fourth seed in the 3k. Earlier in the year, Theisen claimed a new collegiate record in the pentathlon (4,507). No. 2 LSU has 13 total entries and boasts a meet-high eight in the sprint and hurdles. No. 3 Texas follows with ten total entries and is among No. 6 Florida State, No. 11 BYU, and No. 14 Nebraska with four jump entries apiece to lead the category. No. 7 Tennessee leads the country with four entrants in the distance events. Oregon, No. 4 Arkansas, and Tennessee are the only schools with both 4×400 and DMR teams.

The Ducks won the 2010 indoor national title – their first in school history – by the largest margin (25) seen in the national meet since 1998. Oregon topped runner-up Tennessee by a 61-36 tally and will return Theisen and the 4×400-meter relay team as defending national champs. LSU is looking for their record-extending 12th national crown and their first since a 2002 to 2004 three-peat. Texas is looking for a seventh national team crown, a first since going back-to-back in 1998 and 1999. Arkansas could win their first women’s indoor national crown in school history and to improve upon their all-time best finish of third in 2000.

About the Rankings
For more on the rankings and links to guideline and rationale information visit …
http://www.ustfccca.org/rankings/division-i-rankings

The purpose and methodology of the national team computer rankings is to create an index that showcases the teams that have the best potential of achieving the top spots in the national-title race – not as a method to compare teams head-to-head.

The Regional Index is determined using a similar method as national rankings, but on a smaller scale, comparing teams versus others within the same region. The result is a ranking that showcases squads with better all-around team potential — a group makeup critical for conference or similar team-scored events. A team may achieve a better regional ranking than a counterpart that has a better national ranking. Historically, some teams are better national-championship teams than conference-championship teams, having a few elite athletes that score very well in a diverse environment where teams do not have entries in more than a few events. Some teams are better at conference championships or similar team-scored events where they enter, and are competitive, in many of the events.

How a team fares in a national championship, conference championship, or scored meet with only a couple or few teams (like a dual or triangular) can be very different, given the number of events, competition, scoring, and makeup of entries — thus the rationale behind each of the ranking systems. Similar arguments about team makeup and rankings can also be found in swimming & diving and wrestling as their sports also have a similar trichotomy when it comes to team theory.