I think this team is past the "jinx" point. All of our losses came MUCH earlier in the season to inferior competition. It's not like we're going 2-1 each weekend with close, tough conference games. This is the most dominant we've been playing since the 2002 run, in my opinion.
Even if we lose in the conference tourney, we're still right there with ASU as the favorites for Omaha.
Baseball America doesn't have voters. It's a magazine staff, and really it's just one guy who does the baseball poll, although they claim their whole staff works on it. They only have one writer who covers college baseball from a competitive standpoint. Otherwise, they focus solely on the MLB prospect angle.
But they are based in Durham, NC and have always had an ACC/SEC bias.
UConn being ranked cracks me up. I know they won alot of games but the only ranked team they played Louisville, they went 1-2. And they just got their 22-game win streak snapped against Central Conn State??
Winning 26 in a row is no small feat in division I college baseball no matter who you are playing.
But anyway a big part of it probably is the fact that College Baseball desperately needs good teams outside of the South and the West. Whenever one shows up everybody gets excited.