2017 NCAA DI Men’s Outdoor Team Rankings – Week 6

NOTE: Only USTFCCCA member programs are eligible for rankings. Please check your membership status HERE.

NEW ORLEANS – It’s the calm before the storm in the NCAA Division I Men’s Outdoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings.

That’s because the brunt of Conference Championship Weekend is upon us.

A few conferences held their championship meets this past weekend, but the majority of them will take place this upcoming weekend with the NCAA East and West Preliminaries set to begin May 25-27 in either Lexington, Kentucky (East) or Austin, Texas (West).

So what happened in the most recent rankings that were released Monday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA)?

Well, not much changed at the top. Texas A&M is still the clubhouse leader followed by No. 2 Florida, No. 3 Texas Tech, No. 4 Georgia, No. 5 Alabama and No. 6 LSU. All six of those teams remained in place from Week 5 to Week 6 and five of them will square off this upcoming weekend at the SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

The biggest jump of the week belonged to Oregon as Robert Johnson’s team rejoined the top-10 after a few weeks outside of it. The Ducks come in at No. 7 after jumping from No. 12 in Week 5 and were buoyed by the rise of Cody Danielson in the javelin throw. Danielson hit a mark of 72.80m (238-10) and moved up to No. 9 on the NCAA DI Descending Order List.

Further down in the rankings, Ole Miss, Baylor and Kansas cemented their spots in the top-15. The Rebels moved up one spot from No. 13 to No. 12, the Bears went from No. 14 to No. 13 and the Jayhawks jumped two spots from No. 16 to No. 14.

Ole Miss continues to surprise this entire academic year and has three athletes ranked in the top-3 of the NCAA DI Descending Order List – Brian Williams (1st, discus throw), Craig Engels (2nd, 1500) and MJ Erb (3rd, steeplechase).

While this team isn’t in the top-25, Syracuse jumped 17 spots from Week 5 to Week 6 (No. 47 to No. 30) and has Justyn Knight to thank for that. This past weekend at the Payton Jordan Invitational, Knight won the elite section of the 5000 with a time of 13:17.51. If you look at the all-time collegiate outdoor record book, you’d see Knight ranks 4th behind Henry Rono, Diego Estrada, Alistair Cragg. Both Estrada and Cragg ran their marks at that same meet.

You’ll see many of the athletes and teams listed here – and more – at the 2017 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships from June 7-10 at Historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. If you can’t watch NCAAs in person, make sure to follow along with them across the ESPN family of networks starting June 7 at 3:30 pm ET on ESPN3 and throughout the weekend, culminating in the final day (June 10) showing in prime time at 6:30 pm ET on ESPN.