Yesterday was Opening Day in the Major Leagues. It should be a national holiday! In my post yesterday, I unveiled a new statistic for showing hitting performance, TOP. It combines the ability to get on base, the ability to hit for power, and the ability to steal bases.

Today, I’m going to use the same statistic for pitching. Fortunately, Baseball Reference provides a batting against stat when you look at pitching. What is this? It shows the statistics for pitchers using the normal batting stats such as hits, doubles, triples, homeruns, walks, strikeouts, stolen bases, caught stealing, etc. With this, you can see the batting average, on base percentage, slugging average each pitcher allowed. So it also works for TOP!

Opening Day is here! Well, sort of. The Dodgers and Cubs played a two game series two weeks ago in Japan. That will never make sense to me. I don’t have a problem with them playing over there. I just have a problem with them playing there two weeks before the season begins.

Speaking of the Dodgers, they are definitely the team to beat. They have something like 18 starting pitchers and 20 All-Star calibur fielders. In other words, they are loaded. They have the money. And they’re not afraid to spend it. Seems like some other owners out there should spend more money. MLB doesn’t need a salary max cap. It needs a salary min cap.

The first two rounds of the Division I mens’ basketball tournament is done. We are down to 16 teams. The SEC asserts their dominance with 7 of the final 16 teams. There’s no cinderella team this year, unless you want to count Arkansas from the SEC.

Division I

Rankings of remaining schools in tournament:

Auburn will have a tough matchup with Michigan. Florida should handle Maryland. Houston should get by Purdue, but it might be close. Duke will probably roll Arizona. Alabama and BYU is very intriguing but I think Alabama pulls this one out. Tennessee and Kentucky will be a war. Michigan St. will have their hands full with Ole Miss. Texas Tech and Arkansas will be a good one.

The day is here! The most exciting two days of sports starts today with the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. Oh I know, it really started Tuesday. But the final 64 is now set as of today. Lets break it down.

South Region

Probably the toughest region. Seven schools are ranked in my top 20. It appears to me that Iowa State is seeded too high, while Michigan and Louisville are seeded too low. If Louisville can get by Creighton, they could be a threat to Auburn, especially the way Auburn has been playing recently.

Conference tournaments are over. It’s time for the Big Dance! DII and DIII have already started their tournament. I’m going to have to disagree with my rankings. Florida is the best team in the country at this moment.

NCAA Division I

The tournament kicks off tonight with two games. The first game is between a pair of 16 seeds: St. Francis (#289, 16-17) and Alabama State (#252, 19-15). The second game is between a couple of 11 seeds: North Carolina (#39, 22-13) and San Diego State (#44, 21-9).

Here are my rankings for 03/10/2025. Even with two losses last week, Auburn remains number one for the week. Florida jumps up to number 2. Kentucky cracks my top 10 for the first time this year. The mid-major tournaments are wrapping up and the power conferences tournaments take place this week.

Top 10 Division I schools:

Top 10 Division II schools:

Top 10 Division III schools:

D1 Rankings
D2 Rankings
D3 Rankings

Here are my rankings for 03/04/2025. Auburn remains number one for the week. Houston jumps up to number 2 in my rankings. St. John’s enters my top 10 for the first time this year.

Top 10 Division I schools:

Top 10 Division II schools:

Top 10 Division III schools:

D1 Rankings
D2 Rankings
D3 Rankings

Here are my rankings for 02/24/2025. Auburn remains number one for the week. Florida slips past Alabama to claim the number two ranking. Michigan State jumps back into my top ten while Purdue falls out.

Top 10 Division I schools:

Top 10 Division II schools:

Top 10 Division III schools:

D1 Rankings
D2 Rankings
D3 Rankings

Here are my rankings for 02/17/2025. #1 Auburn beats #2 Alabama to secure their top ranking. Wisconsin replaces Purdue in my top 10.

Nova Southeastern reclaims the number spot in DII basketball.

Top 5 Division I conferences:

Top 10 Division I schools:

Top 10 Division II schools:

Top 10 Division III schools:

D1 Rankings
D2 Rankings
D3 Rankings

Here are my rankings for 02/11/2025. The SEC holds down the top four spots in my rankings this week. Michigan jumps into my top 10 for the first time this season.

No change in the top 5 of conferences.

Top 5 Division I conferences:

Top 10 Division I schools:

Top 10 Division II schools:

Top 10 Division III schools:

D1 Rankings
D2 Rankings
D3 Rankings