Perfect Game recently updated their national youth travel team rankings, including the 10u age group. 5 teams from North Carolina were represented, including the Carolina Cardinals at #5, the SBA Futures at #7, Mission Baseball - Smith at #10, the SBA Nationals at #18, and SBA Rowan at #20. These are some lofty rankings and it will be interesting to watch these teams and rankings this spring and summer as more games are played in this age group.
North Carolina representation
5 teams from North Carolina made Perfect Game's national top 50. Amazingly, all 5 placed within the top 20 teams in the country. This included the Carolina Cardinals at #5, the SBA Futures at #7, Mission Baseball - Smith at #10, the SBA Nationals at #18, and SBA Rowan at #20. The Cardinals likely bolstered their ranking with a recent win at the Perfect Game Coastal Super Regional NIT during which they scored wins over national #10 Mission Baseball - Smith and #8 RBI Redstitch (TN). The Futures came in at #7, with Mission - Smith at #10, giving North Carolina 3 teams in the top 10 teams in the country. With the SBA Nationals and SBA Rowan at #18 and #20, respectively, this is by far the best representation for North Carolina at the top of these rankings in any group - although other age groups may have more overall teams from North Carolina in their rankings.
Beyond North Carolina
No teams from Virginia ended up in Perfect Game's updated 10u national rankings, whereas Dirtbags Prime and Chaos Extreme represented South Carolina at #16 and #21, respectively.
What Perfect Game got right
10u national rankings are very difficult as very few of these teams end up actually playing one another. We do think several of the North Carolina teams selected are worthy of national ranking, however. We agree with many of their rankings as 5 of our preseason national top 10 are also in their top 10. 22 of our top 25 also made it into Perfect Game's rankings, including all of our top 21 teams. Notably, we did not have the Cardinals in our national rankings at the beginning of this season, but would include them if/when we update our own national rankings. We do agree that MVP Hustle - Casillas' (CA) 1-run win over Prime Baseball (FL) earlier this spring in Houston should give them the age at the top of the rankings. While there are some discrepancies over where teams fall precisely within those rankings, we feel these consistencies demonstrate both us and Perfect Game have been able to reasonably identify some of the very best teams in United States. We do our rankings independent from Perfect Game or any other ranking site, although we cannot say whether Perfect Game uses our rankings or those from other sites to assist in developing their own rankings.
What Perfect Game got wrong
We are as big a proponent of North Carolina baseball as anyone, but 5 North Carolina teams in the national top 20 and 3 within the top 10 seems like a bit of an overreach. We wonder how strongly performance during Perfect Game events plays into these rankings as all of these North Carolina teams have had some strong performances in Perfect Game events. Mission - Smith, for instance, is an excellent team - one of the very best teams in the state. Are they the 10th best team in the country? They are currently 13-8-2 in USSSA play, despite their VERY impressive tournament win at the Perfect Game Coastal Super NIT. We currently have them at #6 in North Carolina so #10 nationally seems a bit lofty to us. This, however, does not suggest they aren't one of the best teams in the country. We always admit we could be wrong. It just shows how difficult it is to feel confident with rankings of teams as young as 10u. And if you read our review of Perfect Game's 9u national rankings, you know how we feel about that.