UCLA baseball is off to its best record since the 50's, a perfect 9-0, after sweeping Nebraska. Admittedly, beating the 3-7 Cornhuskers, whose ratings power ranking (RPI) is 151, doesn't warrant jumping the Bruins to the top of the polls with the likes of defending champs LSU (7-0, RPI 3), but shouldn't a 9-0 record and RPI of 21 at least move UCLA past Rice (7-5, RPI 53)? Not according to Baseball America, which ranks Rice 9th and UCLA 15th, or the Baseball Writers Poll, which ranks Rice 15th and UCLA 16th. I repeat my last post: "Bruins don't get no respect."
Another PAC-10 team, Washington State (9-1, RPI 8) hasn't even earned a mention in the polls, according to the Baseball America staff and the baseball writers, although two teams from this conference, Arizona State (11-0, RPI 18) and Oregon State (7-3, RPI 13) have been ranked since the first week of the season.
The Bruins and Cougs will just have to keep winning games if they want anybody east of Barstow to take notice.