BATON ROUGE — The third-ranked LSU softball team is ranked No. 1 in the NCAA Central Region poll released Thursday, which lists the top 10 teams in each region.
In addition to LSU, five teams from the Southeastern Conference were listed in the rankings including Alabama at No. 2, South Carolina at No. 4, Mississippi State at No. 5, Georgia at No. 6 and Arkansas at No. 7. The poll included only two teams not from the SEC. DePaul came in at No. 3 and Eastern Kentucky is ranked No 8.
Only eight teams were ranked in in this week’s poll. Each region is not required to list 10 teams if the members of the Regional Advisory Committee who vote on the rankings do not feel there are enough qualified teams to be ranked in that region.
The rankings list the top 10 teams based on a variety of criteria, including strength of schedule, overall winning percentage and wins against teams in that region. A team must also have an overall winning record in order to be ranked.
The nation in broken down into eight regions: Central, East, Mideast, Midwest, Northeast, Pacific, South and West. Last year, LSU was ranked in every regional poll and finished the season ranked first in the Central Region.
The rankings will be released every two weeks throughout the season with the final rankings released on May 12. The rankings will be used to determine placement in the NCAA Tournament at the end of the regular season.
The first two polls released earlier this season listed the top 10 teams in each region alphabetically. LSU was ranked in both of those polls. This is the first poll released by the NCAA this season that lists the teams ranked numerically.
LSU will close out the month of April on the road at Ole Miss this weekend. The Tigers will face the Lady Rebels in a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 5 p.m. and close out the series with a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m.
CENTRAL REGION RANKINGS (April 25, 2002)
1. LSU
2. Alabama
3. DePaul
4. South Carolina
5. Mississippi State
6. Georgia
7. Arkansas
8. Eastern Kentucky