Jay Johnson speaks on how LSU will approach the new season (3:22)Johnson joins The Paul Finebaum Show to explain the mindset the Tigers will carry into the new season and how they’ll approach conference play. (3:22)
What’s something, or someone, under the radar to keep tabs on?
With star players coast to coast, this opening weekend is sure to be as entertaining as ever. Shortstop Roch Cholowsky leads a talented No. 1 UCLA Bruins squad, Alabama’s Justin Lebron looks like the SEC’s premier player, and Georgia Tech’s Drew Burress might just keep racking up wild numbers.
We’ve also got a slew of new head coaches at top programs looking to make their marks early on, such as Josh Elander at Tennessee and Chris Pollard at Virginia. So, what else are we looking forward to this season? Our college baseball experts break it all down, plus give some way-too-early predictions for the end of the year.
McGee: The UCLA Bruins fascinate me. They were so good. Then they were so bad. Then we were all like, “They’ll just keep losing players to NIL elsewhere.” Then they joined the Big Ten. Then they nearly lost their ballpark. Now, they are so good again. Like, preseason No. 1 with the No. 1 MLB draft pick good. I’m fascinated, and we all should be.
McGee: Maybe it’s because my dad is a former East Carolina pitcher and I’m a little close to it, but I feel like every year I use this spot to point out the Pirates. They are still the greatest baseball program to never make it to Omaha. After a very nice job emerging from a lot of transitional stuff one year ago, might this finally be their ticket to sail that pirate ship up the Missouri River?
Arkansas Little Rock finished the regular season losing 13 of its last 14 games before sweeping the Ohio Valley Conference tournament earning an automatic bid to regionals, where it outslugged Dallas Baptist for the first regional win in school history. Riding the hot streak, the Trojans then beat LSU before being edged out in a winner-take-all rematch that sent LSU to super regionals.
McDaniel: Southern Miss is always dangerous from the mid-major ranks, but can get lost in the buzz around Coastal Carolina. Texas A&M seems primed to bounce back from a down 2025 season. Shane Sdao and Weston Moss can anchor the weekend rotation while Gavin Grahovac is returning from injury in the lineup, Chris Hacopian is one of the best transfers in the country, and Nico Partida could be one of the better freshmen in the country.
McGee: That No. 1 MLB pick pretty much everyone here has already mentioned: Cholowsky. He’s the truth. And in Omaha last summer, the country saw what a beast Coastal Carolina’s Cameron Flukey can be. He struck out 117 batters one year ago.
Burke: Cholowsky is too easy of an answer here, so I’ll go with Mississippi State’s Reese. The slugging third baseman posted .352/21/66 last year, and he saved his best work for conference play. If MSU gets back to the top of the heap this year, Reese will be a huge reason.
Dellucci: Cholowsky had a memorable 2025, leading the Bruins to their first Men’s College World Series since 2013 and winning nearly every award, including the Dick Howser Trophy. But even with putting up an impressive stat line of .353/25/74, the national championship and Golden Spikes Award eluded him. With only one hit and one win in Omaha, he will have fuel to surpass his personal stats and the team’s success from last season.
Burress’ start to his college career was so dominant, batting .381/25/67, that I guess last season’s stat line of .333/19/62 could be considered a sophomore slump. Both performances earned him a place on the Golden Spikes semifinalist list in back-to-back years. Along with being one of the most feared hitters in college baseball, Burress is a human highlight reel in center field with game changing speed.
McDaniel: Cholowsky is the easy pick with Lebron also under consideration, but it wouldn’t shock me if Burress has a huge spring and ends up winning the hardware. You can debate what his pro potential is given his stature, but what he’s doing works at the top of the college level without a doubt. I tend to think it’ll work in the big leagues, too.
Rooney: Burress is an undersized outfielder with thunder in his hands and someone will have to wrestle player of the year honors away from him. That said, this is the year of the shortstop in college baseball. Cholowsky, Lebron and Bell are the big three, and all of them are projected top-10 picks. Eric Becker (Virginia), Steven “Monster” Milam (LSU) and Maddox Molony (Oregon) would be Tier 1 in a normal year. And there’s more where that came from.
McGee: LSU continues its new gen dynasty, but it’ll have to survive an epic SEC vs. Pac-12, er, Big Ten matchup over UCLA to do it.
Burke: Impossible to pick the Omaha field at this point, so I’ll just keep it general to conference. The SEC will have three, ACC two, UCLA will be there, and that leaves two spots for teams from the rest of the field … Coastal Carolina? TCU? Wouldn’t shock me! Let’s go!
Dellucci: My early prediction: If the bracket is aligned accordingly, LSU edges UCLA in Game 3 of the Men’s College World Series finals, becoming the first back-to-back champs since South Carolina, and the second repeat in program history after the Tigers’ dominant 1996-97 run.
McDaniel: I’ll go with LSU over UCLA. UCLA has top-end talent and depth along with experience, but I worry that the depth of high-level experience from pro-level arms isn’t good enough to compete with LSU’s. Every year we seem to see the team with depth of power arms get through the grueling postseason.
Chris Burke: There are so many fascinating storylines in college baseball as we get ready to kick off 2026, but two of them are really top of mind. First, can UCLA unseat the SEC from making it seven straight national championships? History has not been kind to preseason No. 1 teams, but UCLA has the star power and experience to run this race. Can the Bruins live up to the hype? Secondly, speaking of UCLA’s star power, its biggest star is consensus projected No. 1 pick SS Roch Cholowsky. He leads a group of three shortstops who could all be top-five picks in this summer’s MLB draft. Alabama’s Justin Lebron and Kentucky’s Tyler Bell are two other DUDES to keep your eye on. This trio could be the best group of college shortstops we’ve seen in a long time!
David Dellucci: Several big programs in the preseason top 25 rankings have never won a national championship. One of the winningest programs historically, No. 16 Florida State, tops the list with tons of Men’s College World Series trips, but zero titles. Others from the rankings who have never hoisted the trophy are No. 5 Georgia Tech, No. 7 Arkansas, No. 8 Louisville, No. 9 Auburn, No. 10 TCU, No. 11 North Carolina, No. 17 NC State, No. 20 Southern Miss and No. 25 Texas A&M. All have strong histories, deep runs, near misses, but no hardware. After watching Indiana’s historic national championship season in football, these teams have to be thinking this could be their year to break through.
Mike Rooney: Skip Bertman authored the original LSU baseball dynasty by winning an astounding five national titles from 1991 to 2000. And now Jay Johnson and this current iteration of the Tigers have won two in the past three years. With Tony Vitello leaving Tennessee for the San Francisco Giants, has that paved the way for a 2.0 version of LSU’s dominance in college baseball? Preseason No. 1 UCLA would like a word … as would Mississippi State and its new skipper Brian O’Connor. Regardless, the LSU Tigers are the best program in the sport right now.
Burke: Some of the teams I’ll be watching early will have my attention because of changes in leadership. Three of the top 14 teams in the preseason poll have new head coaches. No. 4 Mississippi State, No. 5 Georgia Tech and No. 14 Tennessee will all carry high expectations into a season where they break in new skippers. Mississippi State is led by one of the most accomplished coaches in the sport in O’Connor, who left the national championship program he built at Virginia to head to Starkville, to try to get that storied program back to Omaha. Meanwhile, Georgia Tech and Tennessee have handed the keys of their programs to their previous recruiting coordinators as Ramsey and Elander take over with sky-high expectations. Watching them manage those rosters will be fascinating.
Dellucci: Mississippi State and Georgia Tech are in comparable situations — historic programs that finished the past two seasons with eliminations in road regionals and both having fan bases who value beating in-state rivals as much as trips to Omaha. Although State’s head coach O’Connor and Tech’s Ramsey are entering in Year 1, they are stacked with two of the most talented rosters in baseball. The Jackets will field the top position player group in the country, led by No. 1 outfielder Drew Burress and No. 2 second baseman Jarren Advincula and catcher Vahn Lackey, while the Bulldogs’ lineup consists of a potent offense featuring preseason All-Americans Ace Reese and Noah Sullivan, along with highly touted freshman Jacob Parker.
Rooney: UCLA returned the majority of its Omaha roster. And then it won the offseason by acquiring transfer ace Logan Reddemann (San Diego), center fielder Will Gasparino (Texas) and high school righthander Angel Cervantes. Cervantes, who was taken 50th overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates, was the highest drafted player to make it to campus. Threats to the Bruins include an LSU program with momentum, a Texas team with pitching for days and two teams in Auburn and TCU with arguably the best sophomore classes in the sport.
Dellucci: Vanderbilt pitcher Connor Fennell is a player to keep an eye on. Fennell defies today’s starting pitcher stereotype with his lean build and sub-90 mph fastball. What he lacks in modern-day analytics, he makes up with pinpoint accuracy, confidence and competitiveness. Fennell improved from a 4-4 record with 4.74 ERA at Dayton to 6-0 and 2.53 ERA at Vanderbilt, and he was a national leader in strikeout percentage, tallying 84 Ks to 11 walks in 53.1 innings. Fennell even held the talented hitters in the SEC to a .174 batting average.