MCWS 2026: College baseball has become a perfect parity showcase - ESPN

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