For every college baseball fan, the moment has arrived. The NCAA Men’s College World Series (CWS) kicks off on Friday with an electrifying field, and any of the eight teams in the two brackets could win it all.
Four Southeastern Conference (SEC) teams and four Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) teams will face off at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb. The first bracket pits ACC stalwarts the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina, and Florida State University against a tough SEC foe in the University of Tennessee, while the second bracket is more SEC heavy, with the University of Florida, Texas A&M, and first-timers the University of Kentucky against the ACC’s North Carolina State University.
The Omaha 8.#MCWS pic.twitter.com/pGqKdlFX6n
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 11, 2024
Seven of the eight teams in this year’s field came from the top 16 teams that host the first-round regional tournaments. That eighth team is the Florida Gators, who were last year’s runner-up but played the underdog spoiler role in this year’s postseason.
A couple of narratives will be fun to pay attention to, especially for SEC baseball fans. The first is that the last five champions have come from the SEC, all different schools. With SEC teams equally matched with ACC teams, will the conference continue the streak? By the way, an ACC team hasn’t won the CWS since 2015.
“The SEC programs seem to find a different gear in Nebraska,” says ESPN’s Mike Rooney. “Hence the five national titles (by five different teams) in the past six completed seasons. This should be fun.”
The other interesting storyline to think about is the fact that for the past 24 consecutive years (not counting the COVID-cancelled 2020 season), the top-seeded team has not won the CWS. Tennessee would love to break that curse, but the rest of the teams in the Volunteers’ bracket will be looking to knock them off.
Chris Burke of ESPN says:
Tennessee comes into the MCWS as the No. 1 overall seed and is playing a brand of ball that has seen it finish the season winning nine straight SEC series, the SEC regular-season title, the SEC tournament title and going 5-1 through the tournament so far. It's an offense that has the second-most homers in the history of college baseball in a park that tends to be home run stingy. Can the Vols do it? Will be interesting to watch.
Speaking of home runs, this year’s top SEC teams have relied heavily on round-trippers. “The four SEC teams that advanced to the College World Series were among the top five home run-hitting teams in league games,” points out The Athletic’s Mitch Light. “Georgia, which lost in Game 3 of the Super Regionals, led the conference with 73, followed by Tennessee (72), Texas A&M (68), Florida (58) and Kentucky (56).”
Florida’s Jac Caglianone will be one of the home run hitters to watch, but he’s not alone. Light notes, “Individually, six of the SEC’s top nine home run hitters (in league games) will be in Omaha, with Georgia’s Charlie Condon (19), LSU’s Tommy White (16) and Georgia’s Corey Collins (13) missing out.”
Light also brings up some interesting stats about this year’s competitors:
The eight teams in Omaha have combined for 76 appearances in the College World Series but only two national championships. Florida State leads the way with 24 CWS appearances, followed by Florida (14), North Carolina (12), Texas A&M (eight), Tennessee (seven), Virginia (seven) and NC State (four). This is Kentucky’s first trip to Omaha.
The two national titles belong to Florida (2017) and Virginia (2015).
It’s going to be some fun viewing, especially since I don’t have a Dawg in the fight. (If you’ll indulge me for a minute: even though I’m still heartbroken that the Bulldogs couldn’t make it past the Super Regionals, I’m proud of the team, and I’m stoked for the future of UGA baseball.)
I have some teams in mind to root for. I’ve always been a fan of North Carolina’s baseball team, so it’s easy to root for the Tarheels to win. I’ve also grown fond of Kentucky as a first-time CWS team, and Coach Nick Mingione’s unabashed Christian faith is endearing.
"I'm done. I'm not chasing that anymore Lord. I want to play for You."
— Sports Spectrum (@Sports_Spectrum) June 10, 2024
Listen to this powerful message from @UKBaseball coach Nick Mingione (and his son Reeves) after punching their ticket to their first College World Series pic.twitter.com/gTv9zTjPZN
No matter which team wins, it’s going to be a fun and exciting CWS. I hope you’ll tune in and enjoy a few games.
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