Dec. 19, 2003

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV baseball team is ranked No. 26 in the Collegiate Baseball preseason NCAA Division I baseball poll. The Rebels are coming off a 47-17 record in 2003 and a trip to the NCAA Regionals.

Defending national champion Rice University and the University of Miami (Fla.) are deadlocked at the top of "Collegiate Baseball" newspaper's Fabulous 40 pre-season NCAA Division I baseball poll.

The Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll is the oldest college baseball poll. Its birth took place during the 1957 college baseball season.

Collegiate Baseball Newspaper'sNCAA Div. I Preseason Poll(As of Dec. 19, 2003)
Rank School ('03 Final Record)1.  Rice (58-12)1.  Miami, Fla. (45-17-1)3.  Louisiana St. (45-22-1)4.  Georgia Tech. (44-18)5.  Texas (50-20)6.  Stanford (51-18)7.  Arizona St. (54-14)8.  Cal. St. Fullerton (50-16)9.  Wichita St. (49-27)10. Notre Dame (45-18)11. Baylor (45-23)12. Long Beach St. (41-20)13. Tulane (44-19)14. South Carolina (45-22)15. Florida (37-21-1)16. Southern California (28-28)17. Clemson (39-22)18. Auburn (42-21)19. Florida Atlantic (47-16)20. Nebraska (47-18)21. North Carolina (42-23)22. Arizona (35-23)23. Washington (42-18)24. Florida St. (54-13-1)25. Minnesota (40-22)26. Nevada-Las Vegas (47-17)27. Mississippi (35-27)28. Winthrop (35-22)29. North Carolina St. (45-18)30. Mississippi St. (42-20-1)31. Ohio St. (44-21)32. Texas A&M (45-19)33. Oklahoma St. (34-24)34. U.C. Riverside (41-17)35. Alabama (28-24)36. Va. Commonwealth (46-13)37. Southern Miss. (47-16)38. Tennessee (31-24)39. San Diego (32-30)40. Stetson (41-24)