A history of repeat CWS champions as LSU begins campaign

With the current state of college sports, building a dynasty has never been harder. Yet, LSU baseball sits at the cusp of earning that label, again.

LSU has won a pair of national championships in its first four years under the direction of head coach Jay Johnson, the fastest a coach has guided a team to multiple titles.

A championship in 2026 would certainly cement the Tigers of the last half-decade as one of the sport’s great dynasties.

It would also propel the last two LSU teams into rarified air as teams that have repeated national championships.

Six schools, including LSU, have repeated as kings of college baseball since the advent of the College World Series in 1947: Texas, USC, Stanford, Oregon State, South Carolina and the aforementioned Tigers.

LSU’s repeat came during the 1996 and 1997 seasons, and represented the third and fourth titles for the program.

Warren Morris’ legendary two-run walk-off home run at the death in the 1996 championship game is the standout moment during LSU’s repeat run, but the championships solidified the LSU teams of the 1990s as a dynasty. Then, head coach Skip Bertman led LSU to their first five national championships between 1991 and 2000.

The first team to repeat was Texas, which won the third and fourth editions of the College World Series to win the program’s first two of an eventual six championships in 1949 and 1950.

USC is the only program to repeat as champions on multiple occasions and the only one to win three or more consecutive national championships.

The Trojans’ success in the 20th century saw them win 12 national championships, a nationwide high. That success solidifies them as one of the sport’s true blue-blooded programs.

Five of the program’s 12 titles come from a dominant stretch in the 1970s that saw it win five national championships in a row, starting with the program’s sixth overall in 1970 to its tenth in 1974.

Stanford won its only two national championships in succession during the 1980s. The Cardinal defeated Arizona State for both titles in 1987 and 1988 under head coach Mark Marquess, who stood on the top step in Palo Alto for over 40 seasons.

Marquess led Stanford to the feat again; the Cardinal reached the championship game in 2000 and 2001, but fell both times to LSU and Miami, respectively.

Oregon State owns the first repeat of the 21st century, winning its first two of three total championships in program history in 2006 and 2007.

The most recent team to repeat as national champions is South Carolina, which won in 2010 and 2011. Like Stanford, the Gamecocks’ repeat brought Columbia its only national championships in baseball.

They had a chance to join USC as three-peat champions in 2012, but were swept by Arizona in the championship series.

No team has ever repeated as national champions on separate occasions. That club has the chance to be founded by LSU if it is to reach the mountaintop once more this June.

A national title would also define the 2020s in college baseball as the decade of LSU, as it did when the Tigers repeated in the 90s. With a title, LSU would become the only program outside of USC to win three titles in a four-season span.

LSU’s players are not shying away from that opportunity and have framed the upcoming season as an opportunity to win a championship and make history this year, rather than defend the accomplishments of seasons past.

“We’re not worried about defending the title because no one can really take it away from us,” pitcher Casan Evans said in a preseason press conference. “We’re just chasing another one.”