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To get a sense of how the sport sees itself heading into 2026, Baseball America polled Division I head coaches with a simple question: Who will win the national championship?

The only guardrail was that coaches could not select their own team. Some respondents expanded on their choice with brief explanations, offering insight into how they view the balance of power entering the season.

In total, 54 coaches participated in the survey. Some responses have been edited lightly for clarity.

National Championship Favorites

UCLA: 19 votes (35.2%)

It was not the deciding factor in Baseball America’s selection of UCLA as the preseason No. 1 team, but alignment with the majority of coaches polled reinforced the call. UCLA ran away with the vote and was the only program to clear 17% of total selections.

The reasoning was consistent.

“They brought back pretty much their whole team from Omaha and have the best player in the country,” one high-major coach said. “That’s a rare level of proven experience to have on a roster these days.”

That experience is concentrated throughout the lineup. Catcher Cashel Duggar, first baseman Mulivai Levu, second baseman Phoenix Call, third baseman Roman Martin, shortstop Roch Cholowsky and outfielders Dean West and Jarrod Hocking all return after playing in Omaha last season. On the mound, Wylan Moss, Michael Barnett, Easton Hawk and Ian May, among others, are back as well. UCLA also added former Texas outfielder Will Gasparino, who hit 13 home runs as a sophomore, San Francisco State slugger Michael Cunningham, who homered 18 times, and San Diego righthander Logan Reddemann, who is expected to front the rotation.

UCLA’s projected lineup is made up almost entirely of upperclassmen, while the pitching staff skews toward juniors and seniors or arms that logged meaningful innings as freshmen a year ago.

“Very experienced and old position-player-wise,” one coach said. “They also have upgraded pitching from a very solid team last year.”

UCLA last won a national title in 2013 and had not returned to Omaha until last season, when Cholowsky helped guide the program back. The shortstop enters 2026 as the favorite to repeat as College Player of the Year, something that has never been done.

“UCLA’s my pick,” said one coach who has faced Cholowsky. “Best player in the country plays there.”

LSU: 9 votes (16.7%)

No program enters the season with more history at stake.

LSU has won two of the past three national championships and has a chance to become just the second team in college baseball history to claim three titles in a four-year span—a feat only accomplished by USC across the late 1960s and early 1970s. That backdrop alone made the Tigers impossible for many coaches to ignore.

At the center of it all is coach Jay Johnson, widely regarded by peers as one of the best to ever coach in the college game.

“Have to go with LSU,” one high-major coach said. “Honestly, impossible to pick against Jay. They’ve just been too good for too long, and they keep reloading.”

The Tigers again profile as a veteran club. Their lineup returns experience across the diamond, including outfielder Derek Curiel and shortstop Steven Milam, who will be reinforced by another high-end transfer class. The rotation is led by returner Casan Evans and supplemented by portal additions expected to fill prominent roles. It is a familiar formula for a program that has consistently blended retention and acquisition at the highest level.

LSU may not have led the poll, but it enters the season with the sport’s largest target on its back. For many coaches, that reality only strengthened the Tigers’ case.

“LSU until proven otherwise!” One coach said.

Rest Of The Field

Beyond UCLA and LSU, the poll fractured quickly. No other program received more than five votes, which is a reflection of both the parity coaches expect entering 2026 and how difficult it has become to project a clear path through Omaha outside the sport’s established powers.

In most cases, the rationale followed familiar lines. Coaches cited upside more than certainty, pointing to teams with frontline pitching, returning star power or rosters capable of peaking late rather than overwhelming confidence in a complete national title profile. Several responses emphasized how narrow the margins felt between the next tier of contenders and the rest of the tournament field.

That dispersion also underscored a broader theme that emerged throughout the survey: While coaches largely agreed on the teams most likely to win it all, few felt strongly enough about anyone beyond the top two to separate them from the chaos that has come to define the postseason. In a format where timing, health and matchup often matter as much as raw talent, belief thinned quickly once the obvious choices were off the board.

Here’s a rundown of the rest of the field with some quick-hitting quotes.

Mississippi State: 5 votes (9.3%)

“I think this was a great move for coach (Brian) O’Connor. There’s a huge investment there, and he went out and landed some big fish in the portal and high school. It’s an outstanding roster on paper.”

Georgia: 4 votes (7.4%)

“Elite portal class, including the best raw talents available (Stanford transfers Joey Volchko and Matt Scott). If those two click, Georgia will be hard to stop.”

Texas: 4 votes (7.4%)

“They return a ton on the mound. Hard to bet against that kind of experience for me.”

North Carolina: 3 votes (5.6%)

“We faced them last year, and the guys they brought back on the mound are outstanding. Also a pretty stacked lineup it seems.”

Florida State: 3 votes (5.6%)

“Outstanding rotation and a lot of momentum as a program in general. I like who they brought back at the plate, especially (first baseman Myles Bailey). He kills the ball.”

Auburn: 2 votes (3.7%)

“They have a lot of really good, proven bats. They’ll need to show it on the mound a little, but they’re going to be a very tough out.”

TCU: 2 votes (3.7%)

“People are sleeping on this roster. Tons of talent on both sides of the ball.”

Others Receiving Votes

Arkansas: 1 vote (1.9%)

Georgia Tech: 1 vote (1.9%)

Oregon State: 1 vote (1.9%)

predicted
championvotesshareUCLA1935.2%LSU916.7%Mississippi State59.3%Georgia47.4%Texas47.4%North Carolina35.6%Florida State35.6%Auburn23.7%TCU23.7%Georgia Tech11.9%Arkansas11.9%Oregon State11.9%