USA Today/NFCA Division I Coaches Poll

[MelRock]

2016 USA Today/NFCA Division I Softball Coaches Poll
Preseason | Jan. 26, 2016

Rank Team Points 2015 Record Final 2015 Rank
1 Florida (26) 782 60-7 1
2 Michigan (2) 755 60-8 2
3 LSU (2) 711 52-14 4
4 Auburn (1) 698 56-11 3
5 Alabama (1) 672 48-15 6
6 Oregon 666 51-8 7
7 UCLA 625 51-12 5
8 Tennessee 548 47-17 8
9 Oklahoma 514 49-9 9
10 Florida State 493 49-14 10
11 Louisiana 449 42-12 11
12 Georgia 416 44-17 12
13 Arizona 385 41-20 13
14 Minnesota 376 49-11 15
15 Missouri 369 42-16 14
16 Baylor 290 41-17 18
17 UCF 270 50-9 16
18 Kentucky 260 32-26 17
19 James Madison 198 48-10 22
20 Washington 197 42-17 21
21 California 142 39-18 23
22 Arizona State 136 36-22 20
23 North Carolina State 114 38-22 19
24 Notre Dame 77 42-15 t25
25 South Alabama 73 40-13 23

Receiving Votes: Texas A&M (38), North Dakota State (32), Utah (22), Hofstra (14), Nebraska (13), Texas (12), Northwestern (10), Ohio State (6), North Carolina (6), Florida Atlantic (5), Mississippi State (5), USC Upstate (4), UAB (4), Western Kentucky (4), Fresno State (3), Kansas (2), Louisville (2), Pittsburgh (2).

The USA Today/NFCA Division I Softball Coaches Poll is voted on by 32 NCAA Division I head coaches, one representing each conference. First Place votes are in parentheses.

[BeauCajun]

That early season series with Oregon will be interesting.

[MountainDew]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this will be the first year in a very long time where we don't have an elite pitcher correct?

[Cajun_RH]

This is gonna make for a tough schedule. We get a top ten team in Oregon early in the season at home, South Al at home for three games to kick off conference play, two games in Waco against Baylor in the middle of the season, and a three game weekend at #1 Florida towards the end. Should make for a lot of fun.

[CajunEXPRESS]

We're going to see how good we are.

[RaginDave]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this will be the first year in a very long time where we don't have an elite pitcher correct?

Probably, but coming back is Alex Stewart and Kylee Jo Trahan, who both pitched well last year. Stewart actually had the lowest ERA on the team at 2.09 and a 10-2 record in 12 starts and 20 appearances. Kylee was 2-1 in 2 starts and 14 appearances with a 3.35 ERA. I think big think are expected of them this year. We also have Victoria Brown coming back after a year off, who had some decent numbers in 2013 and 2014. She has a career ERA of 3.41 with a record of 15-3 in 17 starts and 34 appearances.

I don't know much about the new girls, but we have these girls coming in that I am sure are going to be good.

Summer Elyson--True Fresh from Teurlings
Alison Deville--Redshirt Freshman from Port Barre
Macey Smith--from Houston that took a year off last year after struggling in her freshman year.

Someone will need to step up, but one thing for sure. Hitting won't be a problem with everyone except Maly coming back this year from last years team, plus the influx of new talent, including 6 redshirt freshman, 7 True Freshman and 2 quality transfers (Taylor Terrio--Nicholls State) and (Katie Repole--Illinois). Also we get back Corin Voinche who sat out last year.

[alum81]

Yes pitching will be the ? If we pitch well we could be really good imo.

[CajunEXPRESS]

Probably, but coming back is Alex Stewart and Kylee Jo Trahan, who both pitched well last year. Stewart actually had the lowest ERA on the team at 2.09 and a 10-2 record in 12 starts and 20 appearances. Kylee was 2-1 in 2 starts and 14 appearances with a 3.35 ERA. I think big think are expected of them this year. We also have Victoria Brown coming back after a year off, who had some decent numbers in 2013 and 2014. She has a career ERA of 3.41 with a record of 15-3 in 17 starts and 34 appearances.

I don't know much about the new girls, but we have these girls coming in that I am sure are going to be good.

Summer Elyson--True Fresh from Teurlings
Alison Deville--Redshirt Freshman from Port Barre
Macey Smith--from Houston that took a year off last year after struggling in her freshman year.

Someone will need to step up, but one thing for sure. Hitting won't be a problem with everyone except Maly coming back this year from last years team, plus the influx of new talent, including 6 redshirt freshman, 7 True Freshman and 2 quality transfers (Taylor Terrio--Nicholls State) and (Katie Repole--Illinois). Also we get back Corin Voinche who sat out last year.

To be highly successful we'll need sub 1.5 ERA. Two plus will work on many teams vs our explosive offense. No doubt about it we'll need better performance to get to the WCWS.

[oldalum]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this will be the first year in a very long time where we don't have an elite pitcher correct?

No sir, that's not correct! While some people don't know our pitchers we do have pitchers that could pitch for just about anyone in the country. Watch out for Summer Elyson to become the leader of the pack. She has been preparing for this for many years and I'll tell you she is ready.We also have Alex returning as an All-Conference pitcher from last year. She is not fancy but she gets the job done!

[CajunAmos]

No sir, that's not correct! While some people don't know our pitchers we do have pitchers that could pitch for just about anyone in the country. Watch out for Summer Elyson to become the leader of the pack. She has been preparing for this for many years and I'll tell you she is ready.We also have Alex returning as an All-Conference pitcher from last year. She is not fancy but she gets the job done!

I'm thinking Summer will be redshirted unless the whole staff does much worse than expected.

[wcd35]

To be highly successful we'll need sub 1.5 ERA. Two plus will work on many teams vs our explosive offense. No doubt about it we'll need better performance to get to the WCWS.

It's nice but sub-1.50 is asking a lot. With the way offense has evolved in the whole sport, I dont think under 1.50 is a realistic target, especially considering how many power teams we play in the regular season and the improvement of the conference.

Last year, there was 1 team in the nation with a sub-1.50 ERA and that was UCF. Sub-2.00 would be tremendous. 11 teams were sub-2.00, of which, 4 made it to the WCWS. We were actually #20 nationally in Team ERA.

To be honest, it really just ends up coming down to the draw.

We've had 5 seasons under Mike with a sub-1.50 ERA out of 14 years and the last time was 2009. If you look at those 6 years since, we've only been under a 2.00 ERA once in that time frame (2011). That 2011 team was the only one that didn't make it to at least a Super over those last 6 years.

Also a side note, the WCWS team in 2014 had the worst team ERA in that 6 year span by a decent margin with a 2.75 ERA. Logically you would think they had to be, in turn, one of the higher avg hitting teams but that's not the case (.302 avg). 2014 was our worst team ERA and 2nd worst team Batting Average in the last 6 years and made the WCWS.

[Cajun90]

It's nice but sub-1.50 is asking a lot. With the way offense has evolved in the whole sport, I dont think under 1.50 is a realistic target, especially considering how many power teams we play in the regular season and the improvement of the conference.

Last year, there was 1 team in the nation with a sub-1.50 ERA and that was UCF. Sub-2.00 would be tremendous. 11 teams were sub-2.00, of which, 4 made it to the WCWS. We were actually #20 nationally in Team ERA.

To be honest, it really just ends up coming down to the draw.

We've had 5 seasons under Mike with a sub-1.50 ERA out of 14 years and the last time was 2009. If you look at those 6 years since, we've only been under a 2.00 ERA once in that time frame (2011). That 2011 team was the only one that didn't make it to at least a Super over those last 6 years.

Also a side note, the WCWS team in 2014 had the worst team ERA in that 6 year span by a decent margin with a 2.75 ERA. Logically you would think they had to be, in turn, one of the higher avg hitting teams but that's not the case (.302 avg). 2014 was our worst team ERA and 2nd worst team Batting Average in the last 6 years and made the WCWS.

Last year only 11 players had a sub 1.50 ERA. Another 25 had sub 2.00 ERA's. The game has definitely evolved in the past 15 years to be much more offensive minded. New ball's, bats, and moving back the pitchers mound have all contributed. I also think the training, players, and coaching have helped to increase the offensive output.