Holy smokes, what an NCAA baseball tournament it has been. So, here's an idea. Leave it the hell alone.
There are zero returning teams from last year's Men's College World Series participating in the edition that will begin Friday afternoon in Omaha, Nebraska. That's OK. Heck, that happened last year, too. The first time since 1957. So, 23 different teams on college baseball's biggest stage over the span of three years -- North Carolina being the only outlier by making it in 2024 and 2026. That's OK, too.
Speaking of hardball history repeating itself, while we were all stunned off our sofas when the top two national seeds, No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 Georgia Tech, were bounced from the first round of this year's tourney, we shouldn't have been. Because that happened last year, too, to Vanderbilt and Texas. And yeah, that's A-OK as well.
Yes, the SEC has five of this year's eight MCWS spots locked up, but this isn't your usual lineup of "It Just Means More" traditional powerhouses. Yes, Texas has played more MCWS games than any other program and has six national titles to show for it, but its last one came when a Texan, George W. Bush, was still in the White House. This is Georgia's first trip back in 18 years, when it was undermined by underdog Fresno State. Oklahoma has two MCWS titles, but its first was in 1951 and its last was in 1994. This is only Alabama's sixth Omaha visit, and two of those ended in runner-up finishes. And sure, Ole Miss won it all in 2022, but this is only its third MCWS berth of this century, and in the four years since the Rebels dogpiled at The Chuck, they failed to make the NCAA field twice amid many very loud shouts to can head coach Mike Bianco.
The other three rungs on this year's bracket belong to the ACC, Big 12 and Sun Belt, including two teams that have never been to Omaha, our very first Friday opponents in Troy and West Virginia. UNC is making its 13th trip, very much a college baseball (Carolina) blueblood. But it has never won it all, famously finishing second to Oregon State in back-to-back heartbreaking 2006 and 2007 finals.
Meanwhile, defending champ LSU isn't defending anything. The Tigers didn't even make the initial 64-team field. A field that spent its first two weekends being turned inside out by squads such as Cal Poly, Little Rock and St. John's. With a whole lot of noise made along the way by St. Mary's, Jacksonville State, Milwaukee and the Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara. A field that managed to send home 11 of the 16 national seeds, including three of the top four. If you know your Omaha history, then you know that nearly every eight-team field has included at least one party crasher, from the Dartmouth/Delaware double-dip of 1970 to Murray State in 2025 (and we'll just excuse the all SEC-ACC blip of 2024). But never have we seen a full month of mayhem such as the one in which we are currently living.
So, hear me now and thank me later. Leave this sport alone.
In this era of collegiate championship tinkering, when the biggest conferences are going full "The Odyssey" battlefield over College Football Playoff expansion and the NCAA is inexplicably pumping up March Madness like it is a bad guy from Dig Dug, college baseball has become a perfect parity showcase. All of the stuff that everyone else is so busy trying to do to manufacture postseason drama, their motivation is explained as seeking more heart-stopping moments and more access to more programs when it comes to chances of winning a national title.
In other words, the same stuff that college baseball is already producing and enjoying.
"As a coach, that's the kind of stuff that keeps you up at night, because there are no off nights," Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle said earlier this month, looking over the wacko bracket that remained after the opening weekend, when his Longhorns had to battle UCSB. "But as a fan, not knowing what's coming next or what team might make a run, because so many teams have the talent to do it now, that's pretty fun."
It's more than fun. It's must-see sports TV. It's the reason so many people fill out so many brackets for the national basketball tournaments and inevitably revel in the upsets even when they burn your bracket down.
But when was the last time either of the Final Fours included a true Cinderella? The past six men's foursomes included only two double-digit seeds. The past two editions had six No. 1 seeds with a No. 2 seed and a No. 3 seed. This year's Women's Final Four was also the four No. 1 seeds.
So, what gives with this college baseball postseason free-for-all?
"I don't think there's one magic bullet here, because the way these rosters were built, it was done so many different ways," said Kyle Peterson, aka the Voice of College Baseball, when he joined us on "Marty & McGee" on super regional Saturday. "You have a Troy roster that is packed with seniors, four-year guys. You have Texas, who had a group of core guys, but then just crushed it in the transfer portal (nine transfers, including five of the top-ranked available players). You have young rosters. You have guys who played together forever. You have lineups that were nearly all playing somewhere else last year. It's all over the place. And what works for my team might not work for your team. It's kind of beautiful."
It is also unpredictable. And isn't that the ultimate aim for any postseason?
To be fair, yes, SEC baseball programs are shopping with cash and clout that most others don't have, powered by a conference-wide commitment to the sport that doesn't exist elsewhere when it comes to top-to-bottom effort. But Omaha invites can't be bought. Ask LSU, whose mastery of the transfer portal no doubt led to titles in 2023 (reminder: Paul Skenes transferred from Air Force) and 2025. But this year's mix never clicked.
"You just don't know until you get everyone in the clubhouse and see what happens," UNC coach Scott Forbes said as his team headed into this postseason. "When it works, and thankfully with [our] group it really, really does, it's the best feeling. That's what we try to offer here. Not just a chance to win, but a chance to feel like you are in a dugout where you feel like you belong."
The push that college baseball received into this new age of everyone has a shot came one year ago this week with the approval of the House v. NCAA settlement that finally unshackled the game from the eternally questioned and inexplicably decimal-divided scholarship limit of 11.7. Now there are 34 scholarships to go with new 34-player roster limits, down from 40. On paper, that feels like it would play into the very large glove of the power conferences. But at least for now, it has helped mid-major programs go hunting with a lot more athletic ammo, with the ability to finally offer full rides to players they might have lost to the benches and bullpens of the bigger teams during the 40-man, "the best I can offer you is half-a-scholarship every other semester" era.
"Ballplayers want to play ball, simple as that," Troy head coach Skylar Meade said last week as his team prepared to host a super regional for the first time, now seeking to become the second straight Sun Belt team to make the finals, following in Coastal Carolina's cleat steps. "And if you have the right players on the right team at the right time, it's hard to beat those guys."
Just as it is hard to beat what the college baseball postseason has become. So, spend the next two weeks taking it all in. Spend the next two weeks soaking it up. Spend that time appreciating that, yes, the beautiful bracket bonanza that everyone else is so desperately trying to create, it already exists, and Omaha is our reward.
And then, for the love of the game -- for the love of every game -- leave it the hell alone.