Feb. 17, 2012

Florida is favorite of coaches to win national title

As was the case a season ago, Florida is the favorite to win the 2012 national championship, in voting of Division I coaches.

There were 173 responses of the nearly 300 Division I schools. The Gators received 108 votes as national champion and 160 votes to return to the College World Series. UF is the unanimous No. 1 in the preseason CBI Composite Poll.

Two-time defending national champion South Carolina was second with 13 votes as national champ and 142 votes to reach Omaha.

Others projected to reach the CWS include Texas (131, 10), Stanford (113, 11), North Carolina (99, 4), Texas A&M (75, 1), Arkansas (63, 3) and Vanderbilt (62, 12). Numbers in parentheses represent votes to reach the College World Series.

Just missing the elite eight were Rice (53, 2), Virginia (45, 3), Cal State Fullerton (44), LSU (44) and Florida State (37, 1)

There were votes for 55 different schools to reach Omaha and 16 different teams to capture the crown.

Last year, the coaches picked four of the eight CWS teams: Florida, South Carolina, Texas and Vanderbilt. They missed on California, North Carolina, Texas A&M and Virginia. Only three coaches picked the Gamecocks to win a second straight national crown.

Thanks to all the coaches who responded to our survey.

(photo by Jimmy Jones)