The other day, there was a topic about "top tier" college baseball teams per state capita. The author of that thread used several teams as examples of "top tier" teams that I disagreed with. Thus, I was curious what programs would you consider to be "top tier" nationally? To me a top tier program includes a combination of sustained/historical success, current relevance, facilities, fan support and absolutely trips to Omaha (I'm sorry, but you aren't a a top tier program if you not reaching the CWS with some frequency).
Below is the list I came up with. I'm curious to know other's thoughts as well.
Tier 1 Programs listed alphabetically
School (CWS Appearances/Titles)
- Arizona (19/4)
- Arizona State (22/5)
- Arkansas (12/0)
- Cal State Fullerton (18/4)
- Clemson (12/0)
- Florida (14/1)
- Florida State (24/0)
- Georgia (6/1)
- LSU (20/8)
- Miami (25/4)
- Mississippi State (12/1)
- North Carolina (12/0)
- Oklahoma (11/2)
- Oklahoma State (20/1)
- Ole Miss (6/1)
- Oregon State (8/3)
- South Carolina (11/2)
- Stanford (19/2)
- Tennessee (7/1)
- Texas (38/6)
- Texas A&M (8/0)
- UCLA (6/1)
- Vanderbilt (5/2)
- Virginia (7/1)
Others programs that I considered including:
- Southern Cal (21/12) It feels weird leaving them off, but they haven't been nationally relevant in over 20 years.
- Auburn (6/0) Close and trending up.
- Louisville (6/0) Really close, just no history prior to Dan McDonnell
- TCU (6/0) Really close. All CWS trips are in the past 15 seasons.
Let the civil discourse begin!
What’s the tier for “always wins 40 games and makes the regional final or gets bounced in a super regional literally every season forever?”
Asking for a friend.
LOL. I brought up USM winning 40+ games nine seasons in a row as being an indication they are a good program in another thread, and I got downvoted. Look, winning 40+ games that many years in a row is a great accomplishment, regardless of what conference you play in.
Yeah. I mean of all the mid-major conferences, the SBC is probably the best for baseball. Most years it’s between fourth and sixth in cumulative RPI, behind the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 and competitive with the B1G.
People love to point out that USM only has one CWS appearance. Look, even making the damn CWS is really hard. Winning it is even harder.
And pretty much every USM team of the past decade has been better than the CWS one lol
You ain’t lying. I just want to see us get hot just once in the postseason. This last season is a perfect example: got the 16th regional site nod, came out in game one and laid a total egg and then had to claw back and got beaten by a Miami team that we were better than. It’s so frustrating to watch the team fall apart every postseason.
Crazy weird to assert a team is better than the team that beat them. What is the point of playing the games, if not to find out which team is better?
Baseball is the ultimate game of lucky and unlucky breaks. That’s why they play 162 games in the MLB and 50-60 in college. Sometimes you catch the breaks, sometimes you don’t, no matter how talented your team is. In the first game against Miami, we caught all the breaks and put up a football score. In the second game, everything bounced their way. Upsets happen and they happen a lot in baseball.
You either do it when it matters or you don’t. It’s a simple game.
Ultimately who’s best doesn’t matter. It’s who wins. The only sport dumb as shit enough to worry about “best” over what actually happens is college football.
except the team that beat you in supers... didn't even need a third game!
Just goes to show how much of a grind and how much luck it takes to make it. Like the other commenter said, every squad we’ve had for the last nine years of winning 40+ games were better than that ‘09 team that made the CWS. Hell, our best player that season, Brian Dozier, was injured and didn’t even play in the regional or super regional. Just a very lucky team that had the ball literally bounce their way nearly every time.
If we rolled out the 2009 pitching staff in 2026 there’d be panic in the streets haha
Literally the only team with 9 straight 40+ win seasons. That says something about a program and its consistency to win, no matter what conference. Add to that that we’re the only non-P4 program in the top 10 in attendance every season and it’s hard to argue against us being a top program in college baseball.
Hello from Greenville friend!
USM and ECU have always belonged together 💛💜
If it makes you feel better I was utterly terrified of y’all in the 2022 super regional, and I am always terrified of yall when we play. Loads of respect for our eagle bros down south.
I just want to see us go on a run and get hot in the postseason just one more time in my lifetime. We were insanely lucky and got hot back in ‘09 the one time we made the CWS and that was without Brian Dozier, our best player that year and maybe the best player ever to play for Southern Miss baseball, who got injured and missed the entire postseason. Our current run in baseball reminds me of our football teams back in the late 80s and throughout the 90s and early 2000s; they had something like 22 straight winning seasons and regularly beat bigger programs like Alabama, Georgia, FSU, LSU, Ole Miss, Miss State, etc., but could never make that leap to being a true elite team. Winning 40+ every year for nine years in amazing and it seems like we’ve got the manager and squad to make it ten, but we need to find that spark in the postseason to make another CWS run.
What’s the tier for most NCAA tournament appearances without making it to Omaha?
That would likely be called the South Alabama and East Carolina tier.
I would initially have said Houston….who has maybe been the most hard luck program of the Super Regional era postseason…but they did make it back in the 60s.
Hello, my long-lost football friend,
Southern Miss not completing the trilogy in 2023 was a tragedy.
0-24. Somebody is chopping onions
I didn’t know that until our Supers last year, hard to believe!
We’re right by you 1/20. And the 1 was in the 50s.
Don't worry, we're coming to make you feel better.
Yikes.
Shutup
Speak for yourself, I'm at half mast
I dunno, I think this is a scalable question. Some programs are absolutely top tier but they are tiny schools in tiny conferences with tiny viewership/resources. I don't think you could reasonably expect more from a school like Dallas Baptist or Campbell, for instance.
The Big West punches way above it's weight too; Irvine/UCSB/Long Beach have a lot of tournament appearances and MLB alums for schools with their resources.
Oregon State has had some very great series with those teams, absolutely they belong in the discussion!
Especially now when LSU and Tennessee will buy the best players from 99% of teams.
Man i absolutely love to see this
Seeing this hurts my brain, heart, and ass
Yep. And that 99 loss to Miami still hurts all these years later. Still FMFFM
2009 still hurts
That was a great CWS though.
Yeah it was a banger
40% Natty rate is something you love to see
I'm still not over that Skenes year.
Me either
If only Langford's drive was a foot or 2 higher...
8 wins out of 9 finals appearances will never not be insane to me
Winning 40% of the CWS that a team made is absolutely sick
First CWS I watched was ‘91 and it always seemed like when we made it we were going to win it….except for the smoke years…
What’s also sick… Over the last 40 years, LSU has made it to Omaha 20 times. Going to Omaha, on average, every other year, over a 40 year period, is insane.
https://i.redd.it/o0qmncms96ag1.gif
Happy cake day
1996 still hurts
This is mind-boggling
Almost as much as I'd love to see that second number go even higher soon...
Like with any college sport, hard to parse ,"historically good" vs "clearly great right now". Resource wise I'd weight some SEC teams above their long time historical performance
Okie State made 7 straight CWSs. Thats pretty incredible. Yes they were in the Big 8 which helped but thats still very impressive.
Buffalo Bills of college baseball.
Like a few other have said I think you really have to separate it between “historically” top tier and “currently” top tier.
I’m a UofL guy and saw Louisville listed. Historically anything before Dan and we were awful, now since Dan has been here I think you could consider us a top tier school (even if we can never win the CWS).
I'd argue that the MLB talent produced should merit a place on the list combined with enough tournament appearances/conference championships.
It really highlights what a legend Danny Mac is that UofL is even in the discussion here. It would have seemed inconceivable when I was growing up.
For the most part I agree with the list with some minor changes. I think Cal State Fullerton and Arizona State align more with a Southern Cal than the others on the list. Miami too, but maybe to a lesser extent.
I wonder if Coastal Carolina belongs on this list. I didn’t realize they had only been to CWS twice, but when they go they make it count with 1st and 2nd place finishes.
I also think Louisville belongs in there. Not much separating them from a Texas A&M though I think Louisville has sustained their success for longer.
Fullerton has been to Omaha twice in the past 10 seasons (2015 & 2017).
A&M was runner-up just back in 2024. Louisville has never made the finals. A&M has substantially more Regional appearances than Louisville (2002 was their first ever appearance in the tournament). Also, A&M's facilities and fan support (2 factors I considered) are substantially better than Louisville.
Of course you’re right about Fullerton, I don’t know how I missed that. I might have been thinking of Long Beach State.
I personally dont think Coastal qualifies as a Tier 1 program. But they absolutely deserved a honorable mention. 1 Natty and 2 natty appearances equals, if not outweighs, what TCU, Auburn, and Louisville have done.
I understand the difficulty in excluding a team with 5 natties, but Arizona State tier 1? 15 years since 40 + wins, 45 years since their last championship.
Agreed, and what a massive fumble by the athletic department. They should still be a powerhouse, they do have some money and Tempe is in basically every MLB teams backyard too.
I'd have Coastal tier 1. There's something to be said about actually winning games when you get to Omaha.
Wow, FSU has gone 24 times and never won once? That’s insane.
That surprised me too when I learned it
Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Miami, Arizona State, Georgia, and Cal State Fullerton are not elite programs anymore. Most of their success is a decade+ old at this point. Georgia is on the come up though so maybe eventually they can be elite, but they haven't made the CWS since the Bush admin.
I for one appreciate you not adding South Carolina here and also it would've been fair to add South Carolina here.
Its just honestly slipped my mind its been nearly 14 years since their last trip to Omaha.
Clemson has a similar gap too
Only one I think Ok State is still an elite program, I know they haven't been to Omaha in a while but they've been to the postseason every single year since so they've still been successful and also they have lots of investment for facilities etc like an elite program.
I agree that we're not an elite program
Yeah as an ASU guy, it's definitely frustrating. Never should have fired Pat Murphy. I think ASU can fairly be categorized as a storied program in college baseball, but not currently relevant/elite.
Oklahoma was in the CWS finals in 2022. Fullerton has been to Omaha twice in the past 10 seasons.
For Oklahoma that was a one off and their only regional win between 2013 and now. Cal State Fullerton has gone to Omaha twice since Serrano left with a few regional wins.
They aren't bad programs, but that isn't enough sustained success to be called elite.
I agree it's debatable, I was just providing my reasons for including them.
Came here looking for Southern Miss, was not disappointed.
What is the tier for no appearances in the CWS this millennium but still having the best nickname: Long Beach State Dirtbags
TCU should be on your list. They are not "up and coming" They have been here for a decade.
and that's coming from a Razorback.
Who are you quoting?
Hell... I don't know... just making a statement and I have heard them referred to as such many times.
TCU is among the elite and they have been for a decade.
This is just so subjective. How do you weigh those out? No clue. No right or wrong.
My thoughts: At a certain point, Fullerton’s status as top tier is just history. I think we are at that point. Same for Arizona State. This pains me to say as a near 40 yo who grew up watching those programs in the CWS, but if you are counting what a program was doing 20 years ago, the 70s and 80s are equally as relevant so you may as well include USC.
I really do think this list is too long, by most any criteria though. There’s too much “very good but not top tier” on here. Clemson, Georgia, UNC, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, UCLA (among others) just aren’t in the same category as some of the others.
Generally, I think of top tier as regularly in Omaha and in title contention (i.e., winning a couple of games in Omaha) every few years.
And honestly, I think LSU, Florida, and Arkansas are probably in their own tier.
Fullerton has been to Omaha twice in the past 10 seasons.
There's certainly an argument to be made for excluding them.
What has Vanderbilt done to belong here? I mean /s-eriously.
My thoughts are that the top tier should have half as many teams for it truly to be the top tier. Some of those are definitely a tier below
As an avid OU fan I wouldn’t have them on that list.
DVH is the new Mike Martin
Shhhh, you said the quiet part out loud.
🖕
DVH had never won 40 games more than 4 seasons in a row until this past season.
Mike Martin won 40 games for 40 seasons in a row.
That’s a wild stat!!!
LSU and then…
Yeah I think this is accurate. LSU is just on their own tier.
The only knock on them would be that their down seasons have typically been more down than those of programs like Arkansas and Florida. .
Hell, Florida maybe occupies its own tier below that.
I mean, if you are going to include Cal St Fullerton on there but not include USC? I would put USC on that list before I put TAMU on there. I would also put Long Beach St before TAMU
You also inlcuded UGA but not Wichita State? What is that reasoning?
Cal State Fullerton has 2 CWS appearances in the past 10 seasons. USC has zero. Since 2000, CSF has 8 CWS appearances and 2 titles. USC has 2 appearances and no titles.
The selling point for USC is their 12 titles, but 10 of those came in the wooden bat era (prior to the mid-70s). That's a different era of the sport. They've done very little in modern times.
A&M has 4 CWS appearances since 2000 and again USC has just 2.
Neither LBSU nor Wichita State have been to Omaha since the 90s. Both now struggle just to make the tournament. LBSU's last regional appearance was 2017 and Wichita's was 2013.
Fair on the LBSU.
UGA since 2000 only has 2 more tournament appearances that WSU. WSU has also made the finals 4 times as opposed to UGA 2. One could argue that both teams have been equally relevant since wininng their championships.
TL/DR. Recency bias
I don’t think ECU is elite, but they’re more deserving than a lot of schools that are being brought up.
Definitely hinges on if you can put teams who haven’t won it all in Tier 1. Because teams like Arkansas and Florida State definitely feel like they are Tier 1, but depends on your priorities. Maybe this could be split into tiers 1a and 1b.
I know it matters ….but in terms of this exercise, I just don’t value winning it all THAT much more than getting down to the final 2 or 4.
The jokes are fun. But Arkansas has been in the hunt so much that I look at them the same as I would a program with titles. I think it’s more just luck/randomness that they haven’t gotten it done.
I'd like to see the numbers with just the last 25 years.
Same list, but numbers since 2000
School (CWS Appearances/Titles)
Second most titles since 2000! Wooooo
Need stanford to do something
East Tennessee State University
Poor Florida State.
Florida State being 0-24 in CWS appearances. 💀 They’re the best program that’s never won it.
That's pretty obvious. The 2nd best program to never win it would be one of these:
Arkansas 0-12
North Carolina 0-12
Clemson 0-12
I know about Arkansas, we were there for one of those lol.
LSU
LSU
LSU
LSU
LSU
LSU
2 more times
I’m a VFL but I’d wait to see what Tennessee does without Vitello. We show up as 7/1 on your list but in 2019 we would’ve been 4/0 all time.
I'm curious as well. There are several programs that have had great success under a single coach (Wayne Graham at Rice) that dropped off as soon as that coach left.
Coastal Carolina 100% belongs on this list.
Ahh yes, the unbiased opinion of SunBeltSyndicate 😂
Exactly! Haha but for a younger program, I do think they deserve mention and could begin to be a mainstay.
This is an interesting list and a good exercise. I think tier 1 could probably be split into 2 or even 3 tiers. Schools like Texas, Miami, and Arizona State are really in a league of their own as the blue bloods of college baseball (and USC, who hasn’t been very good this century as you pointed out). Some other schools like Fullerton haven’t been great recently either, and then you have the up-start schools or schools who make it to Omaha once every few years but are probably a step below the other guys (Georgia, A&M)
Oh, Jaysker.
If we don’t win it all this year, I’m cheering for you FSU! 12/0 sucks for us, but you have my full support if we can’t do it.
Virginia not mentioned at all? 7 CWS appearances, 1 win, 1 other final…
All more recent history but you’d think they’d be mentioned over TCU, Louisville, Auburn
I have them listed. It's alphabetical, so they're at the bottom right after Vandy. You just overlooked them.
https://preview.redd.it/siz3lh5r76ag1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a27a97066f92f1376ffdda13f6df060e6b819620
Apologies but something wrong with the Reddit app because they aren’t showing for me! Ha
Weird. It shows fine for me.
https://preview.redd.it/1haoy9ghf6ag1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=63b7f401c9805075cce41ff5ead7ef82f133c204
Must be a dark mode thing
I’m not seeing them either but also using dark mode
UVA’s on there
When I saw the State fan flair, I absolutely expected you to define it in a way that just barely included State while excluding us.
You know what they say about assumptions.
The real answer is kstate but nobody is ready for that conversation 😤 I will also not elaborate further
Wake Forest
East Carolina and USM are elite mid majors but they’re maybe tier 2
I think you pretty well nailed it with this thoughtful post. The "other USC" has certainly lost their luster while Auburn, the Cards and the Frogs are pretty much "come latelys".
Doesn’t Virginia have the same track record as Tennessee (7/1)?
Yes. Which is why both are listed.
FYI, Others have had issues seeing the UVA entry when using the app in dark mode.
https://preview.redd.it/yf46bzawlfag1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=652bcc0ec970af7352471311dcc13b071d611af3
That’s bizarre. I’m not using the app in dark mode and while I see Virginia in your screen shot, they’re not there in the post I’m looking at. All good
https://preview.redd.it/l8lpiacpnfag1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=57da60b8b1b4cfb5772136d04aaf0bfaf9f64d90
Historically CS Fullerton belongs but currently they don’t. They are trending downwards
They've made the CWS twice in the past ten seasons
Illinois is Top Ten in 2026. I hear SEC has extended an invite too
Sec sec sec!!!! See?
Fresno State is 4/1 but that .25 record is still higher than Florida State and Arkansas. Quality over quantity lol.
You can’t leave off USC.
I can and I did. They haven't been remotely relevant in a quarter of a century. Last year was the first time they even made the tournament in a decade.
ECU can make a case in being considered elite over some of the other teams on this list
So make the case for ECU “over some of the other teams on this list”
Southern Cal needs to be included
Agreed. Most national titles even tho as OP stated not much relevance in that past couple decades. Although they seem to be trending upward since the new staff took over.
10 of their 12 titles came in the wooden bat era. It was just a different game back then.
IMO, Florida State and Arkansas have to be cut and dropped down a peg until they win a title. As a program, both are stronger and more consistent than many others on the list who have won titles, but you just cannot be Tier 1 without a title. I’d drop both to tier 1A, maybe above tier 2, if that’s possible.
I’d shave tier 1 down to Texas, LSU, USC, Fullerton, Arizona, Arizona State, Miami, Oregon State.
Tier 1A: South Carolina, Vandy, Florida, FSU, Arkansas, Stanford, UCLA, Oklahoma, and Miss State.
I get Tennessee and Ole Miss and A&M as recently very good, but as programs if you go back beyond the extreme recency bias? They haven’t sustained success and I’d put them a level below those in 1A.
I feel like it’s a little unfair to say we are recently successful and haven’t sustained it. Depends on how far back you want to go. Basically since the early 2000s which is when Bianco started we’ve been successful. We have outlier years here and there but so does everyone else.
Yeah, like I said we are splitting hairs a little when we are talking shout the non LSU/Texas types.
I cut Tennessee and Ole Miss and A&M only because subjectively, as a fan, I don’t think of them as quite as elite.
That said - if someone were to include the Rebels? I might softly disagree but I’m not gonna say you’re crazy. Of those three who I had “on the bubble,” I’d have Ole Miss ahead of Tennessee and A&M. And I’d have Florida State ahead of Arkansas.
Arkansas has had 12 CWS appearances to Ole Miss’s like 7, I think? So nearly double. More history and sustainment.
But Ole Miss has a title and Arkansas does not. A rational argument could be made to put the Rebels ahead of Arkansas and FSU for that reason alone. Personally I think titles are the single most important thing, but tons of appearances add up, too. If Ole Miss had 10 or 12 appearances, obviously they’d be ahead of Arkansas and FSU.
There’s a lot of subjectivity as to like how we define this stuff.
I think I’m more so at a disagreement with including Tennessee in the same category as OM and A&M, because those two programs have a successful history that extends pre-2021. Tennessee doesn’t.
I can agree with that.
Tennessee has been phenomenal for a few years. But was it all just Tony V? That’s totally a fair question.
I don’t know that I believe that they can sustain it.
I don't agree, but I'll point out that Clemson & North Carolina also have 12 appearances and no titles.
Yeah fair callout.
Clemson and NC could be contenders for that 1A type slot, too.
I just feel like (the subjective eye test part) FSU and Arkansas have become ubiquitous with college baseball culture as behemoths in the sport over multiple decades. Especially FSU. I don’t get that from UNC or Clemson, just like as a college baseball diehard.
I do get it from the teams I listed in tier 1 and 1A. But again, I really do think there’s a subjective piece where reasonable minds can disagree.
Rude. I agree with you, but rude 😂.
I think you’re closer to listing blue bloods (4+ titles) and top tier/new bloods.
Not really sure what the point of identifying “top tier” is anyway.
[deleted]
OP included us.
Also, I would argue that the rankings have given us the benefit of the doubt for the past few years in a way they typically reserve for the SEC.
We're definitely victims in other sports, but not here.
Well considering Oregon State is on the list, it seems you just enjoy complaining for the sake of complaining.
[deleted]
I’m still very confused, you’re on the list.
Why not? College baseball is a very diverse sport. 9 different schools have won the CWS in the past 10 years. 17 different schools have won it since 2000.
I listed 24 programs out of the 307 that play D1 baseball. That's just under 8% of all the teams?
Compare that to FBS football where there are only 136 programs. 8% of that number would be 11. Would it be crazy to say there are 11 "top tier" teams in college football?
I think some consideration should be given to programs that produce MLB talent, but may not have the national championships/CWS appearances to make your list. I think producing guys who play at the next level is a definite factor in being "top tier" and especially if your alums have been making debuts in recent years.
On that basis, I'd suggest that the following teams (among others) should have been included:
I'd also suggest that most of the above outperform their financial resources, and produce more talent than would be expected especially in the NIL era.
Oregon definitely does not outperform their financial resources.
No fucking shit! Most does not mean all.
East Carolina