Wake Forest, Florida, Arkansas, LSU lead 2024 D1Baseball preseason rankings

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Fresh off a trip to the national semifinals in 2023, Wake Forest will enter the ’24 campaign as the top team in the land, headlining the 2024 D1Baseball Preseason Top 25 rankings.

Despite the departure of stars like Rhett Lowder and Brock Wilken, Wake Forest has some of the best returning talent in college baseball, led by Nick Kurtz and Josh Hartle. The Demon Deacons bolstered that returning core with the nation’s top-ranked group of transfers, highlighted by former Tennessee fireballer Chase Burns and Team USA dynamo Seaver King.

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While Wake Forest leads the way, the SEC is well represented in the top five, with Florida, Arkansas, and LSU checking in at Nos. 2, 3 and 4. The Gators finished last season as the national runner-up, the Hogs are loaded on the mound and promise to have yet another productive offensive lineup, and the defending champion Tigers have a deeper pitching staff and a powerful lineup built around superstar third baseman Tommy White.

TCU, which reached the College World Series last season, rounds out the top five with a strong returning offensive lineup along with a deep pitching staff. Three more SEC teams land in the top 10: No. 6 Vanderbilt, No. 8 Texas A&M and No. 9 Tennessee. Oregon State is the top-ranked team in the West, checking in at No. 7. And 10th-ranked Clemson leads a cluster of ACC teams in the middle of the rankings.

Nine teams in our preseason rankings did not finish last season ranked. Of those teams, Texas A&M is the highest ranked at No. 8.

The SEC leads the way with eight teams in the Top 25, while the ACC is close behind with six teams in the rankings. The Big 12 is represented by four teams, including Kansas State, which narrowly missed the NCAA tournament last season. The Pac-12 has two teams in the rankings, and five more conferences –American, Big Ten, Big West, CAA, and Sun Belt — are represented with one team apiece.

D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers, Aaron Fitt, Mike Rooney, and Joe Healy compiled the Top 25 rankings.