Preseason NCAA DII Indoor T&F National Rankings Announced

NEW ORLEANS – Just as the NCAA Division II world has had a chance to catch its collective breath from an exciting cross country season, indoor track & field has arrived.

Preseason National Team Computer Rankings were announced Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, with reigning men’s cross country champion Adams State and reigning women’s outdoor track & field champion Pittsburg State leading the way early.

NATIONAL PDFs: Top-25 Summary | By Team | By Event | Top-10 Count per Team
WEEK-BY-WEEK PDFs: This Season | This Season by Rank | All-Time

The indoor season officially opened up this past weekend, with some teams around the nation set to take advantage of pre-winter break meets to test their fitness.

In the meantime, these National Team Computer Rankings took into account marks achieved during the 2015 indoor season to set the stage for the start of the 2016 season. The higher an athlete’s mark ranks on the national leaderboard, the more points are garnered for that athlete’s team. The teams with the most points are ranked the highest.

During the regular season, only marks achieved during the 2016-17 season will be counted for the rankings.

The ASU men start as relatively strong favorites to reclaim their national title from the 2014 season. Reigning national champion Tiffin checked in at No. 2, followed by No. 3 Lincoln (Mo.), No. 4 Grand Valley State and reigning outdoor national champion No. 5 Saint Augustine’s.

Comparatively, the Pittsburg State women start with less of a preseason cushion over cross country champion No. 2 Grand Valley State. Rounding out the top five were No. 3 Hillsdale, defending national indoor champion No. 4 Lincoln (Mo.) and No. 5 Johnson C. Smith.

Coincidentally, the order of the top four teams was completely inverted from a year ago with PSU finishing fourth and Lincoln winning.

While ASU and PSU may enter the 2017 indoor season as favorites, by no means can they rest on their laurels.

Since the debut of the preseason rankings for the 2011 campaign, the top-ranked men’s teams have equally as often won the national title (twice) as they have finished 10th at the NCAA Championships (twice). The national champion during that time have just as often been ranked first or second in the preseason as they have been ranked fifth or lower.

The last preseason No. 1 to win the title was Adams State in 2014.

Not since 2012 has a preseason favorite in the women’s rankings gone on to win the national title. GVSU was the last women’s team to accomplish that feat in both 2011 and 2012.

The full National Team Computer Rankings for the 2017 preseason can be found below.