By: James Gravley | WV Sports Chat
The West Virginia Mountaineers baseball team was left out of Perfect Game’s Top 25 last week and now the club is left outside of D1Baseball’s preseason Top 25 on Monday.
Unlike Perfect Game, D1Baseball does have two Big 12 teams represented in the Top 25 being TCU at No. 10 and Arizona at No. 24.
Here are my projected Big 12 standings for 2026 with the 2025 records for each team.
TCU (‘25: 39-20)
AZ (‘25: 44-21)
WVU (‘25: 44-16)
KU (‘25: 43-17)
K-State (‘25: 32-26)
ASU (‘25: 36-24)
OSU (‘25: 30-25)
Cincy (‘25: 33-26)
BU (‘25: 33-22)
TTU (‘25: 20-33)
UCF (‘25: 29-36)
BYU (‘25: 28-27)
UH (‘25: 30-25)
Utah (‘25: 21-29)
Under first-year head coach Steve Sabins, the Mountaineers finish ranked in all the major polls for a second straight year, ranging from as high as No. 12 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) poll to No. 17 in the USA Today coaches’ poll.
In between, Baseball America ranked West Virginia No. 13, while Perfect Game and D1Baseball had the Mountaineers No. 14.
West Virginia must come out hot to begin the season in order to make it inside the Top 25. I have said it all offseason this club could easily win 50-plus games this season. That is if the hitters in fact hit in timely and clutch situations and if the pitching staff actually finds its groove this season.
I do believe this club will make the postseason, but like the last two years, they won’t be hosting a regional. For reference, I have WVU playing in the Tallahassee Regional at seasons end against FSU, Virginia Tech and Dallas Baptist.
Photo: WVU Athletics
