A closer look at the coaches' polls, Part 1: Campus Insider: Golf Digest

A closer look at the coaches' polls, Part 1

Thursday, December 16, 2010

With college golf in the midst of its winter break, it allowed me to do a little housekeeping and catch up on a project I've been wanting to undertake for a while now: mining the Golf World coaches' polls.

It was at the start of the 2001-02 season that the magazine resumed running the coaches' polls. During the 2006-07 season, we partnered with the two coaches' associations to help administer them.

My project, then involved going through each Division I poll from September 2001 to the present to identify interesting trends and see how schools have fared over the past 10 years. Needless to say, the data I uncovered was pretty interesting.

Today I'll give you the best info from the Golf World/NGCA women's coaches' poll. Come back tomorrow to see the men's findings.

GOLF WORLD/NGCA coaches' poll
(2001 to the present)

Number of times poll has been compiled: 79
Number of schools that have been ranked: 55

Number of teams that have been ranked No. 1: 7
Duke, 40; Arizona State, 12; UCLA, 10; Auburn, 8; Alabama, 3; Georgia, 3; USC, 3
Number of teams that have appeared in every poll: 4
Auburn, Duke, Georgia, USC

Most times ranked in the top 25:
Auburn, Duke, Georgia, USC, 79
Arizona, 78 (Did not appear in the April 13, 2009 poll)
UCLA, 78 (Did not appear in the Nov. 23, 2001 poll)
Pepperdine, 77 (Missed Nov. 1, 2010 and Nov. 22, 2010)
Wake Forest, 75
Oklahoma State, 74
Florida, 72
Tennessee, 71
Vanderbilt, 68
California, 67
New Mexico, 66
Stanford, 66
Arizona State 61

Most consecutive times ranked in top 25 (all-time):
Auburn, Duke, Georgia, USC, 79
Pepperdine, 77
UCLA, 75
Oklahoma State, 72
Wake Forest, 67

Most consecutive times ranked in the top 10 (all-time):
Duke, 63
Auburn, 59
Arizona State, 51
Oklahoma State, 38
Georgia, 37

Most consecutive times ranked in the top five (all-time):
Duke, 59
Arizona State, 40
UCLA, 24
USC, 19
Auburn, 18

Longest current streaks ranked in top 25:
Auburn, Duke, Georgia, USC, 79
UCLA, 75
Wake Forest, 67
Purdue, 45
Alabama, 30
California, 30

Longest current streaks being ranked in top 10:
USC, 36
UCLA, 33
Alabama, 24
Purdue, 11
Duke, 10

Longest current streaks being ranked in top five:
UCLA, 11
Duke, 10
Alabama, 5
USC, 4
LSU, 3

Number of schools that have been ranked in the top 10: 29
Auburn, 74; Duke, 74; UCLA, 61; Georgia, 57; USC, 57; Arizona State, 56; Oklahoma State, 55; Arizona, 40; Pepperdine, 38; Purdue, 31; Vanderbilt, 27; Alabama, 24; Florida, 23; Tennessee, 23; Ohio State, 22; Texas, 19; California, 15; Virginia, 15; Wake Forest, 14; Arkansas, 12; Washington, 11; New Mexico, 10; LSU, 9; Michigan State, 8; Stanford, 8; Tulsa, 7; Denver, 2; UNLV, 2; New Mexico State, 1

Number of schools that have been ranked in the top five: 24
Duke, 69; UCLA, 56; Auburn, 54; Arizona State, 43; Georgia, 28; Oklahoma State, 28; USC, 28; Pepperdine, 15; Arizona, 12; Texas, 10; Florida, 7; Tulsa, 7; Purdue, 6; Alabama, 5; Ohio State, 5; Vanderbilt, 5; Virginia, 5; LSU, 4; New Mexico, 4; Washington, 4; California, 2; Denver, 1; Michigan State, 1; Tennessee, 1