Elite Company

Fewer than 100 teams have been ranked in 25 years

Oct. 17, 2007

By Ray Dise

Special to CSTV.com from CVU.com

	RAY DISE Ray owns and operates CVU.com and regularly contributes volleyball content to CSTV.com. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- VOLLEYBALL 12/16: Penn State Wins Title In Near Historic Fashion 12/14: History Meets When Stanford And Penn State Take Floor 12/13: Cal's Banner Year Ends In A Flash 12/13: This Feels Familiar 12/12: They're Something, All Right 12/5: Magee, Paolini Hit Big For Longhorns 11/28: ABC's Of The NCAA Tournament 11/20: First Time Callers 11/15: Ducks Flying High 11/7: Big 12 Gives Back 10/31: Streaks Were Made To Be Broken 10/24: The Numbers Game 10/18: Elite Company 10/10: SFA Puts Winning Streak On Line vs. Rival 10/3: Going Streaking 9/26: Conference Races Heating Up 9/18: And Then There Were Four 4/26: Semifinals About To Take Shape 4/19: Tournament Time in Conference Action 4/12: NCAA Tournament Quickly Approaching 3/29: UCSD Looks to Drop Underdog Tag 3/22: Carthage Seeing Red 3/16: Spring Breaking 'Em In 3/1: BYU Does It With Two 2/23: Touching On The Top 5 2/15: Candidates Galore For Awards 12/17: Nebraska's Run Represents A Movement 12/15: Historic Meeting In Omaha 12/14: Thompson Rides Into the Sunset 12/14: Red-Letter Day For Nebraska 12/13: Stanford Has The Players To Win Title 12/9: Two Storied Programs Meet, Stanford Downs Texas 12/8: Texas Starts Wisconsin Season, Finishes it Too 12/8: Despite Being Bay Area Rivals, Stanford Beats Cal in Texas 12/8: A Stat Lover's Paradise 11/30: Tournament ABCs 11/16: Banner Long-Overdue For Carnesecca Court 11/9: Top-Ranked Huskers Hanging Tough 11/2: Gearing Up For Conference Tournaments 10/26: In or Out 10/20: Aggies Are Digging Their Way In The WAC 10/13: National Roundup 10/5: Building Toward A Sooner National Title 9/29: Moore Success in Eugene 9/7: Revival of the Mustangs 8/31: Some (Sun) Devil 8/18: Man Down But Back For More 12/22: Silver & Tin Pure Gold FOOTBALL 1/02: Long List of Longhorn Skill

In the history of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division I Coaches Top 25 Poll, which has had a couple of title sponsors with CSTV being the current one, there have been 90 teams that have received one of the coveted spots.

Beginning as a top 20 poll in 1982 and expanding to 25 spots in 1991, the poll has been the barometer for which schools the coaches in the AVCA feel are the nation's best.

Throughout the years, two schools -- Nebraska and Stanford -- have proved to be the cream of the crop in terms of being ranked by the coaches.

Both the Huskers and Cardinal have been ranked in the AVCA Division I Coaches poll 360 times to share the top spot over third-place Hawai'i, which has been ranked 356 times based on the statistics compiled by the AVCA through the 2006 season and adding the number of times that each school has appeared in the poll this season.

To further narrow the scope of the nation's elite programs, only half of the 90 teams ranked have been ranked in the top 10.

Of those 45 schools, Nebraska and Stanford are once again at the top, but with Stanford holding the lead with 330 Top 10 rankings followed by Nebraska's 326 weeks in the Top 10. Hawai'i is third on this list as well with 274.

The top 10 of teams that have been ranked in the Top 10 is rounded out with fourth-place UCLA (261) followed by USC (215), Florida (214), Penn State (196), Texas (194), Pacific (189) and Long Beach State (175).

The Top 10 has stayed essentially the same from the end of last season with the exception of Pacific, which has not been ranked in the Top 10 for a number of years, falling two slots from seven to nine, while Penn State and Texas have risen one slot each by virtue of their presence in the Top 10 every week this season.

Fifteen teams -- Nebraska, UCLA, Hawai'i, Stanford, USC, Long Beach State, Penn State, Pacific, Washington, Florida, BYU, San Diego State, Minnesota, San Jose State, and Cal Poly -- have had the distinction of being ranked No. 1 for at least one week in the history of the AVCA poll. Each of the teams that has been ranked at the top, with the exception of Florida, BYU, San Diego State, Minnesota, San Jose State, and Cal Poly, has won at least one NCAA national championship. The only team to have won an NCAA national championship but have never been ranked No. 1 is Texas, which won the NCAA title in 1988 but finished sixth in the final poll at a time when the final poll was released prior to the finish of the NCAA tournament.

Nebraska has spent more weeks -- 80 to be exact -- in the top slot than any of the other 14 teams. UCLA has spent the second most amount of time at No. 1 being at the top of the poll for 51 weeks. The Huskers are currently in the midst of an amazing string of appearances at the top of the poll. With the exception of the final polls in 2004 and 2005, Nebraska has been ranked No. 1 in every poll since Nov. 29, 2004.

Two new faces -- Dayton and Middle Tennessee -- entered the poll for the first time this season. The Flyers of Dayton debuted at No. 23 in the poll of Sept. 3 and have risen steadily to the No. 12 spot they currently hold.