Rice No. 1, MSU 24th In Final Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Poll
The Owls, fresh from winning the College World Series in Omaha for the school's first national championship in any sport, finished the season ranked No. 1 in the final three Collegiate Baseball polls.
Rice beat Stanford two of three games in the championship round at the College World Series which included a 14-2 title game victory over the Cardinal.
The Owls concluded the year with wins in seven of their last eight games.
Mississippi State was ranked in at least one of the four major national polls every week this season, spending seven weeks in the top 10 and topping out at a No. 5 ranking midway in the 2003 campaign. The Bulldogs finished the year with a 42-20-1 record, sporting the SEC's best overall winning percentage (.675) while advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in the last eight seasons.
The Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll is the oldest college baseball poll. Its birth took place during the 1957 college baseball season.
Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's NCAA Div. I Poll
(As of June 24, 2003)
Rank School (Record) Points Prev. 1. Rice (58-12) 495 1 2. Stanford (51-18) 493 3 3. Cal State Fullerton (50-16) 490 2 4. Texas (50-20) 487 5 5. Miami, Fla. (45-17-1) 485 6 6. South Carolina (45-22) 484 7 7. Louisiana State (45-22-1) 483 4 8. S.W. Missouri St. (40-26) 480 8 9. Florida State (54-13-1) 479 910. Arizona State (54-14) 477 1011. Long Beach State (41-20) 474 1112. North Carolina State (45-18) 471 1213. Baylor (45-23) 469 1314. Georgia Tech (44-18) 465 1415. Nebraska (47-18) 457 1516. Houston (37-30) 449 1617. Texas A&M (45-19) 444 1718. Ohio State (44-21) 442 1819. North Carolina (42-23) 439 1920. Auburn (42-21) 438 2021. Richmond (48-15) 436 2122. Lamar (40-18) 435 2223. Florida Atlantic (47-16) 432 2324. Mississippi State (42-20-1) 429 2425. Southern Miss (47-16) 427 2526. Nevada-Las Vegas (47-17) 424 2627. Washington (42-18) 421 2728. Notre Dame (45-18) 418 2829. South Alabama (42-19) 415 2930. U.C. Riverside (41-17) 412 30