D1 Baseball Mid-Season Surprises - Top 25

Hey, how you doing? Alex here. Thanks for joining me. In today's episode, we are taking a look at the Midseason Division 1 baseball top 25. So we are halfway through the college baseball season and Division 1 teams can play up to 56 games. And we're right around that halfway mark and wanted to update you on where the teams are standing and some surprises that we have. Some mid majors are in. Six to be exact, are in at least my top 25. So I'm excited to share that with you. And if you're new to my channel, my name is Alex Swenson. I'm a former Division I college baseball coach, scout and recruiter with 11 years of experience. And now what I do is help talented high school baseball athletes go through this college recruiting process and help them find the best college fit. So again, another reason why I'm excited to share with you is there's just more mid majors that are getting more light on their program, which I love because a lot of mid major programs can get overlooked. And I'm such a big advocate of mid majors. I'm a product of one in Jacksonville University. But I've been all around, you know, I've been in the sec, I've been at a high academic institution and I've been at a mid major as well, all at the Division 1 level. So I've been able to see all this and I understand why. People look at the power fives and they're amazing, they're great, they're super shiny and super sexy. But there's no doubt the mid major programs can get overlooked because when I say overlooked, there's such great baseball programs at the mid major level and a lot of athletes and even parents just aren't aware of them or sometimes they worse. I see this is like they're looked down upon, like they're not that good. And you know, there's great baseball at all the levels. I'm obviously doing Division 1 right now, but there's great baseball at Division 2, there's great baseball at Division 3, there's great baseball at NAI and there's great baseball at JUCO and you should be looking out all of these levels. Not everybody's going to be a Division 1 player and that's okay. It doesn't make you any less of a player or less of a person that if you don't play at the Division 1 level and there's tiers with all of these levels and tiers within Division 1, tiers within Division 2, tiers within Division 3 NAI and JUCO. And if you are a contributor to your high school varsity team, there's going to be a place for you at the next level. There's over 1600 college baseball programs. So if you stay open minded and target these schools at all the levels, you're going to be able to find an opportunity. If you are proactive in this process and honestly just don't, don't hope that you're going to be found. Don't go on a, you know, don't go to these tournaments and travel teams and just, hey, hopefully I get seen. That's not the way to go about this. All right. You need to be proactive in this college recruiting process and have a list of schools of, hey, what, what are reach schools? Reach schools are schools that are a little bit of reach for you that might not be realistic for you right now, but you still want to go after. I get that. Okay. I want you to shoot for your dreams, but you, at the same time, you have to manage your expectations. Then you should be targeting target schools that could be a really good fit for you athletically, academically, geographically, socially, financially, all of those things. All right, then safe schools. Safe schools that you feel strongly that you could play at all Right. Athletically and get into academically. So with that said, I would love to hear your feedback on my top 25 and see what you agree with or what you definitely disagree with. And make sure you like and subscribe, whether you're listening on the podcast or on YouTube as well. That helps me a lot. And they kind of get the word out for college baseball and help people through this college recruiting process. So let's dive into the top 25 and number one will be no surprise if you have been keeping up with Division 1 baseball and that is LSU. They have just had a fantastic year. Their team is absolutely stacked from pitchers to hitters. They are doing a great job. And man, just on a tear right now. They have not moved from number one all season. Even preseason, they were ranked number one. And again, they have not moved from there. Number two. I love seeing this Wake Forest coach Walter over there. He's done a fantastic job. He's been there a long time. They're 26 and four and having a great season. Coming in at number four. Number three, excuse me, Florida coach Sullivan over there. But they are doing a great job. They have the number one hitter from. In regards to home runs. A home run record up to this point is 18. When I say he's leading, I should say he's leading the nation at 18 and he is on pace to get 30 plus right now, which is just crazy in this, this era with the bats. But there might be something going on with the balls because the balls are flying out of of this stadium right now and there's more home runs hit than any time in history at this point. We're, and we're like way above it. I did a video on this like a month ago and there was a thousand home runs hit more than that time this last year. So again, the ball is just flying out. Coming in at number four is Vanderbilt. They are completely hot right now. They are, they are rolling. Coming at number five is Arkansas. Number six is South Carolina. They're 27 in three. Speaking of home runs, they're up there with the top teams with the most home runs. Number seven is, man, just consistent. Virginia, they're a great school academically and they're consistent on the baseball field year in and year out. They're 25 and 4. Number 8, Stanford. Another great academic school. 18 7. Talking about consistency there as well. Kentucky, they're having a great year. A little bit of a surprise for Kentucky. They're 26 and three and they're doing a really good job, especially in the sec. Just so competitive there. Tennessee's rounding out in the top 10. They're 21 and 8 coming out just an unbelievable year. Last year they lost a little bit earlier than they wanted to in the NCAA tournament, but they did have a big target on their back, just kind of how they played as they go. And usually we saw it in March Madness, man, those number ones, they just have a big target on their back and people are motivated to beat them. And so we'll see how they go with a little bit different role. They're not number one this year and last year they kind of had an LSU. They were just number one consistently week in and week out. Number 11, Boston College. They're 21 and 6. Love seeing this. Boston College having a great year out of the ACC. They're 21 6, so it's good to see that. Oklahoma State coming in at number 12. 12, 22 and 7 coming in. Number 13, Louisville. Consistent. Louisville. Year in and year out, they're. They're doing great. Number 14, North Carolina. 20 in nine. The state of North Carolina just has such great baseball, especially at the Division 1 level and D2 level and Division 3 level. So number 15 is Campbell, your first mid major program. They're 22 and 5 and in my opinion, the number one ranked mid major program in the country out of North Carolina and then number 16, East Carolina 21 and 8. Just another mid major program that has been dominant at the mid major level over the last few years as well. And then we have Miami 20 and nine at 17, number 18, Texas Tech 20 and nine and number 19, another mid major program, Florida Gulf Coast 23 and six out of the A sun. Same conference that I played in, Jacksonville University. They had Chris Sale at the time when, when I played against them and when I was in college and that was. And they were really good then as well. And yeah, I got the, I got a lot of abs against Chris Salem. It's probably what you think it is. It didn't work out well for me that much there. There's a couple times where I got the better of it, but he got me a lot more than I got him. So I number 20, UConn 20 and 7. Another mid major program. I love seeing schools out of the Northeast. It's just, it's hard man, up there with the weather and it's hard to get in a rhythm with the team. But they are, they're rolling there out of the Big east, so it's good to see that. Texas, number 21, number 22, coastal Carolina, another mid major program, probably one of the most recognizable mid major programs. They won the College World Series several years back, so they are back in the top 25. Number 23, UCLA at 17 and 8. UC Santa Barbara is number 24, mid major program again. And rounding out the top 25 is West Virginia 21 and 7. So that is my top 25. Would love to hear any feedback that you have and what schools you think should be in and what schools you think should be out or moved around would love. And I know not everybody's gonna agree with this and that's okay, but that is what I have. And again, would love any feedback or anything at all. What whether you want me to talk about certain things or you have questions I can answer, please comment down below and we will go from there. I will see you in the next video. Take care.