Oct. 13, 2003

STARKVILLE, Miss. –
The National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) recently announced the USA Today/NFCA All-Time Top 50 poll and the South Carolina Gamecocks are listed 13th overall. The Gamecocks have been ranked in 96 of the possible 112 polls, including the last 13 in a row.

The poll was compiled by combining each team’s voting points they have received in weekly rankings from its inception in 1995 to the final poll of 2003. Two teams – Arizona and Oklahoma have been ranked in every poll. The Gamecocks are second in the SEC for most poll appearances behind No. 9 LSU. The remaining SEC schools listed are Alabama (19), Georgia (36) and Mississippi State (47).

USC was ranked in the first 40 polls, from 1995 to week four of 1998, and 43 consecutive polls from week two of 1999 to week six of 2002.

NFCA ALL-TIME TOP 50 POLL

1 Arizona
2 UCLA
3 Washington
4 Fresno State
5 Oklahoma
6 Michigan
7 California
8 Arizona State
9 Louisiana State
10 Stanford
11 Cal State Fullerton
12 Nebraska
13 South Carolina
14 Iowa
15 Oregon State
16 Louisiana-Lafayette*
17 DePaul
18 Florida State
19 Alabama
20 Texas
21 Oklahoma State
22 South Florida
23 Cal State Northridge
24 Long Beach State
25 Missouri
26 Hawaii
27 Minnesota
28 UNLV
29 Southern Mississippi
30 Texas A&M
31 Illinois-Chicago
32 Notre Dame
33 Oregon
34 Massachusetts
35 Cal Poly SLO
36 Georgia
37 Florida Atlantic
38 Michigan State
39 Pacific
40 Cal State Sacramento
41 Colorado State
42 Kansas
43 Louisiana-Monroe*
44 Ohio State
45 Utah
46 Nicholls State
47 Mississippi State
48 New Mexico
49 Baylor
50 Texas State-San Marcos*

* Louisiana-Lafayette (Southwest Louisiana), Louisiana-Monroe (Northeast Louisiana) and Texas State-San Marcos (Southwest Texas State) totals represent rankings from both current and former institutional names.