What a season for College Baseball. It’s almost like you can feel the energy around the sport changing. Some of the best viewership numbers in over a decade for both regular season and postseason broadcasting, along with external factors like the potential MLB lockout put the 2027 season in place to be one of the biggest in the sports history. But we can talk about that in February, let’s focus on our 2026 Omaha teams and how they performed.
1st team out: Ole Miss
Omaha was a smack in the face for the Rebels. After going undefeated through regionals and supers, the opposite happened in the World Series. Ole Miss’s losses both came on opposite ends of the statsheet. The pitching duel against North Carolina went wrong fast after Taylor Rabe was pulled. Then they fell short in a shootout against Troy, getting outscored 12-8. Still a season to be proud of for Ole Miss.
2nd team out: Alabama
The Tide made their first Omaha appearance since 1999. That’s about all there is to take from this for Alabama. Game one against Oklahoma was a 9-0 blowout. Game two against Texas featured runs on the board for the Tide, but it also featured 12 more for the Longhorns. A pretty forgettable Omaha appearance, but one that could serve as a return to 1990s form. Hopefully for the Tide they come home with a title this time.
3rd team out: Troy
You can’t appreciate how wild this Troy run was unless you look at the numbers. Troy became the first team ever to reach Omaha with 30 losses and the lowest NET ranked team to make the CWS since 1999. Their first ever CWS game was a game one loss against West Virginia that they battled in, just barely falling short of an upset win. Game three against Ole Miss showed Troy doing what they do best, outscoring a stronger opponent to survive for their first ever Omaha win. Game 5 would unfortunately be the end of the Trojans run, with West Virginia dominating all the way through. It’s hard to overstate how huge this season was for the program, and I’m confident that this is just the beginning for Troy Baseball.
4th team out: Texas
Jim Schlossnagle and friends earned the Longhorns their first Omaha trip since 2022 and the schools division 1 leading 39th College World Series appearance. Which school stopped them from adding a 7th NCAA Championship? If you have followed college football since Texas joined the SEC, you know exactly what team I’m talking about. The Georgia Bulldogs have been a thorn in the side of Texas since they moved from the Big 12, and their showdowns this tournament are just more fuel on the fire. The first game was a Georgia blowout, with Adrian Rodriguez being the only Longhorn to cross home plate. Rodriguez followed that up by powering a blowout win over Alabama in the Longhorns first elimination game. He went 5 for 5 with 7 RBIs and helped Texas survive. Then they had to play Georgia again, where despite Luke Harrison’s 11 strikeouts, Texas failed to score, putting a close on the 2026 Longhorns season. Don’t worry Texas fans, Georgia is absent from this year’s football schedule, so you’ll have until the postseason to get over it before Georgia inflicts some more trauma in the SEC Championship or CFP.
5th team out: West Virginia
After back to back exits in supers, the Mountaineer faithful were desperate for Omaha baseball and Steve Sabanis’s crew guaranteed they wouldn’t wait any longer. After a scare from Kentucky in the regionals, WVU dominated Cal Poly to clinch their first ever College World Series appearance. Their first ever College World Series win would come in the opening game against Troy, another team making their Omaha debut. The next game against North Carolina wouldn’t go as well for West Virginia, with a 7th inning Gavin Gallaher triple sending the Mountaineers to the elimination bracket. There they would meet and defeat Troy again. Unfortunately part two against North Carolina wouldn’t go as well as part two against Troy. The staff got shelled early, and a late game attempt at a rally couldn’t muster up the needed 13 runs to keep West Virginia alive. Despite the defeat, the Mountaineers brought home the 2026 Rocco’s jello shot challenge, a title arguably better than a national championship. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing West Virginia in Omaha frequently in the years to come.
6th team out: Georgia
After their thrilling super regional against Mississippi State, the Dawgs advanced to Omaha for the first time since 2008. However they would have to conquer the red river to take it home. They sailed halfway across before they got sunk. Their two games against Texas went well, but Oklahoma was a beast they couldn’t slay. The first contest was a close defeat where they homered three times for their only three runs of the game. Game two was a blowout dealt by Dasan Harris and his 5 RBIs and 2 homers. Just like that, Georgia was heading home, and Oklahoma finally had revenge for the 2017 Rose Bowl. It definitely stings for the Dawgs, but the SEC title marks a bright future for this program.
Runner up: North Carolina
After UCLA and their fellow ACC powerhouse Georgia Tech were eliminated, many considered the National Championship UNC’s to lose. Well that’s exactly what they did! Ole Miss and West Virginia were handily defeated, but then they ran into Oklahoma. Game 1 got away from them after a close start. They held on the whole time in game 2 for a blowout win. As for game three, I’ll save the details for Oklahoma’s section. For any other team that took the trip to Nebraska this would be a super success, but for the Tarheels, this is a disappointment.
2026 Men’s College World Series Champions: Oklahoma
Wow. A team with a sub .500 conference record, who got bounced after 1 game in the SEC Tournament are your 2026 National Champions. This Sooners run is going down in history for sure. First they take on Georgia Tech, a team that featured what some considered to be the best offense in college baseball history. They got crushed in game 4, and fell behind 8-2 in game 6. Most viewers probably assumed Oklahoma’s season was over, but they came back and won after a big 4th inning. In game 7, the Sooners fell behind yet again, only to rally in the final three innings. Dayton Tockey won it in the 10th inning for OU. They demolished Kansas in supers by a combined score of 21-3. Then came Omaha. They smoked Alabama in game 1, barely edged out Georgia in game 4, then put the Dawgs down in a game 6 blowout. Oklahoma had eliminated the SEC, BIG 10, and BIG 12 champions in one run. Game one against UNC looked like it would be an offensive duel after 5 first inning runs, but OU pulled ahead after a series of base hits in the 4th. They had a chance to close it out on Father’s Day, but the duo of Caden Glauber and Ryan Lynch had other plans. Game three. While many of us hoped for a dramatic contest after back to back blowouts, this game followed the pattern established by games 1&2. Oklahoma put up 13 runs, with the dagger coming from Kyle Branch in the 8th. Just like that, the season is over and the Sooners are champions.
Golden Spikes: Roch Cholowsky/Justin Lebron
Both of these guys had great seasons, but only Roch Cholowsky would receive a Golden Spikes finalist nomination. Cholowsky batted .320/.452/.636/1.088, while Justin Lebron slashed .273/.383/.525/.908. Both are considered top prospects for the upcoming MLB Draft, with Roch mocked as the first overall pick to the Chicago White Sox.The Golden Spikes award gets announced on June 29th with the other two finalists being Landon Hairston from Arizona State and Daniel Jackson from Georgia.
NPOTY: Cameron Flukey
If you read any of the college baseball updates I wrote this year, you would know he was injured. After 7 strikeouts on opening day, Flukey suffered a stress fracture in his ribs and missed nearly the entire season, only returning in late April to get a few starts in before the tournament. Jackson Flora took the award home after a great season for UC Santa Barbara.
Overrated: Georgia Tech
Despite the shocking regional exit, this prediction obviously wasn’t great. Georgia Tech’s offense was even better than I expected, and the pitching staff that I had concerns about was solid enough to make this team just as good as expected. Definitely not overrated, but this season will definitely go down as disappointing to the GT faithful.
Underrated: Troy
I always believed in the Trojans! This postseason run was so much fun to watch, from the Sun Belt Tournament battles, to earning the last at-large bid, to blowing out Florida in game 7 of regionals, to earning the first Omaha berth in school history at home in their first ever super regional appearance, to eliminating Ole Miss for their first Omaha win. This Troy team is one I’ll never forget.
National Champions: UCLA
The baseball variant of the BIG 10 is a power conference in name only. This UCLA team looked flat after dominating for most of the season. I already mentioned my theory on why the Bruins fell apart in my regional review, but I’ll bring it up again. UCLA got too complacent with coming back to win games. Being complacent doesn’t work in the postseason, and that mindset cost them. The Bruins athletic department better be active this offseason. The loss of Roch Cholowsky and a similar exit gives me some 25-26 Vanderbilt flashbacks.
Thank you for reading this year! See you in August for College Football!
