The 2026 college baseball season ended on Monday night with Oklahoma claiming its first national title since 1994, edging North Carolina in three games at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb.
Oklahoma and North Carolina, not surprisingly, are Nos. 1 and 2 in The Athletic’s final top 25. The Sooners, unranked in the preseason, finished the year on one of the all-time great runs — beating the regular-season and tournament champs from the ACC (Georgia Tech), Big 12 (Kansas) and SEC (Georgia) en route to an unlikely national title. The Tar Heels were ranked No. 10 in the preseason but quickly asserted themselves as one of the nation’s elite teams.
The other six teams in the CWS field make up the rest of the top eight. If you made it through two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, you’ve done enough to deserve a top-eight finish.
For the rest of the ranking, I didn’t simply reward postseason success. It was a combination of what teams did in the regular season and their performance in the NCAA Tournament — skewing more toward the regular season.
That’s why you don’t see Cal Poly in the top 25. Congrats to the Mustangs on a great season, but they won the Los Angeles Regional without having to play the host, UCLA, and then lost two games in the Supers to West Virginia by a combined score of 29-3. Little Rock was a tough omission — especially since Jacksonville State is ranked No. 24 and the Trojans beat the Gamecocks twice in the Hattiesburg Regional — but its body of work (39-28 overall, 16-11 in the OVC) just didn’t warrant a spot in the top 25.
Three teams that didn’t even reach the finals in the Regionals remained in the ranking: UCLA (No. 10), Nebraska (No. 20) and Tennessee (No. 25).
The Bruins went 52-8, including 28-2 in the Big Ten, but lost twice to No. 4 seed Saint Mary’s in the Los Angeles Regional. The Cornhuskers (43-17, 23-7 Big Ten) beat South Dakota State in the opener of the Lincoln Regional before losing to Ole Miss and Arizona State.
Tennessee, which went 0-2 in the Chapel Hill Regional, was a tough call. The deciding factor for the Vols: They went 8-7 against the College World Series field, with series wins over Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma. That’s pretty strong.
RankTeamRecordPostseasonLast rank
1
Oklahoma
43-23
Won national title
NR
2
North Carolina
54-14-1
CWS finals
2
3
Georgia
52-12
CWS semis
4
4
West Virginia
46-15
CWS semis
10
5
Texas
45-14
CWS
5
6
Alabama
42-20
CWS
9
7
Ole Miss
41-22
CWS
21
8
Troy
38-31
CWS
NR
9
Georgia Tech
50-11
Lost in Regional final
3
10
UCLA
52-8
Lost in Regional
1
11
Auburn
42-22
Lost in Super Regional
6
12
Kansas
45-18
Lost in Super Regional
13
13
Mississippi State
43-19
Lost in Super Regional
15
14
USC
48-18
Lost in Super Regional
20
15
Texas A&M
41-16
Lost in Regional final
7
16
Oregon
43-18
Lost in Super Regional
18
17
Oregon State
45-14
Lost in Regional final
8
18
Florida
41-21
Lost in Regional final
11
19
Arkansas
41-22
Lost in Regional final
14
20
Nebraska
43-17
Lost in Regional
17
21
Florida State
40-19
Lost in Regional final
12
22
Southern Miss
44-17
Lost in Regional
16
23
Oklahoma State
39-22
Lost in Regional final
19
24
Jacksonville State
48-15
Lost in Regional final
NR
25
Tennessee
38-22
Lost in Regional
25