NCAA DI Men’s National Rankings Set for Regular Season Finale

NEW ORLEANS – Little changed in Monday’s edition of the NCAA Division I Men’s Outdoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings, but don’t expect the calm to last much longer with conference championships looming on the horizon.

NCAA Division I National Team Rankings Top 5 – Men 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Texas A&M Florida LSU Arkansas Texas 331.50 pts 270.86 pts 235.02 pts 198.49 pts 185.07 pts View Complete Men’s National Team Computer Rankings

Eleven of the top 15 teams held steady from a week ago, including each of the top four teams in the nation – all of whom will clash at this weekend’s SEC Championships in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

No. 1 Texas A&M (331.50 ranking points), No. 2 Florida (270.86), No. 3 LSU (235.02) and No. 4 Arkansas (198.49) will all duke it out for conference supremacy this Thursday through Saturday.

And it’s not just those four. A top-five showdown was broken up when Texas (185.07) bumped Georgia (167.74) back to No. 6 this week, and host Alabama (147.18) is ranked No. 9 in the nation. Not too far behind are No. 13 Mississippi State (105.66) and No. 22 South Carolina (79.45).

A word of caution: The National Team Rankings are not meant to predict the outcome of smaller conference championship meets, but rather how teams might fare at the much larger NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon, on June 8-11.

The SEC Championships won’t be the only league with multiple national top-25 teams vying for the title.

No. 5 Texas and No. 8 Texas Tech (155.94) – which also moved up one spot this weekend – will duel for the Big 12 crown this Friday through Sunday at TCU alongside No. 23 Kansas and the host No. 24 Horned Frogs.

It’ll be an exciting weekend in the ACC, as well, with No. 10 Virginia Tech (118.76), No. 11 Virginia (115.36) and No. 12 Syracuse (112.94) all separated by just five points in the national rankings. Those three will battle at Florida State this Friday through Sunday.

Two-time defending NCAA Champion No. 7 Oregon will headline the Pac-12 Championships at Washington this Saturday and Sunday against the likes of No. 16 UCLA and No. 17 Stanford.

The Big Ten Championships at Nebraska on Friday through Sunday rounds out this weekend’s conference meets with multiple top-25 squads as No. 14 Minnesota squares off with No. 15 Penn State.

One team that has already reaped the rewards of its conference championship weekend was No. 21 North Carolina A&T, which improved a whopping 71 spots from last time with a runner-up MEAC effort. Sprinter Christopher Belcher led the charge with the No. 3 time at 100 meters and the No. 4 mark at 200 meters.

Prior to this weekend, NCA&T had never been ranked higher than 48th – way back in the rankings’ inaugural 2008 season.

Also making significant improvements were No. 20 BYU (up 13 spots) and No. 23 Kansas (up eight).

The National Team Computer Rankings are complied by a mathematical formula based on national descending order lists. The purpose and methodology of the rankings is to create an index that showcases the teams that have the best potential of achieving the top spots in the national team race.

Rankings points do not equate with NCAA Championships team points.

A full description of the rankings can be found here.