Contrary to Popular Opinion: Here's Who's Actually Winning the 2026 College World Series

Last year we revealed that the greatest college sports event may well be the College World Series (MCWS). Like the basketball tournament it lasts weeks, it is filled with implications for the professional draft, contains Cinderellas stories, and drives last minute heroics.

This season is no different.

In an effort to continually promote this awesome event, here is everything you need to know about this year’s tournament in Omaha.

The Teams

This year, the teams include West Virigina, Troy (Alabama), North Carolina, Ole Miss, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and Oklahoma.

According to the NCAA, West Virginia was the national 9 seed, North Carolina was 4, Texas was 6, Alabama was 16, and Georgia was 3.

Right away we have possible Cinderella or spoiler runs from Troy, Ole Miss, and Oklahoma. For Troy to advance they had to beat number 10 ranked Florida and Arkansas – Litte Rock who had to beat number 7 Southern Mississippi. Though Troy has won Division II championships, this is their first time in the D1 tournament.

Meanwhile, Ole Miss had to take down number 20 Nebraska and  5 Auburn.

Very suspiciously absent is national #1 seed UCLA who lost their qualifying to Cal Poly who subsequently lost to West Virigina.  In the end, only four of the top 10 teams advanced to the College World series and only five of the top 16 made it to the end goal.

We can attribute the disappointment of good teams to the beauty of double elimination and series play. While the winner of the NCAA basketball tournament needs to win out perfectly, the College World Series is more forgiving. This approach allows teams an extra chance to come back from an upset, or an extra chance for an upset. It is hard to beat the same team multiple times, and the World Series tournament shows that consistent play will outlive intermittent spectacular play every day.

The Players

Unfortunately, we won’t get to see Roch Cholowsky in his final World Series this year and I doubt his absence will impact the shortstop’s draft stock as the consensus number 1 overall pick. It is difficult to identify players by draft status due to high school athletes watering down the MLB draft, but a few highly anticipated picks have worked their way into draft predictions.

According to ESPN’s MLB mock draft, several of the top 40 predicted picks will be showcased in the College World Series. Unlike other sports, the draft can be watered down by high school athletes, but the college players till get most of the press.

Ole Miss’ Cade Townsend could end up in the Cubs program. Although only a freshman, Townsend was impressive sitting at 93-95 mph and touching 98 at times. In 15 appearances and 64 innings, he went 5-3, with a 3.94 ERA and 88 strikeouts. He’ll be featured prominently in Ole Miss’ rotation next week.

Centerfielder Aiden Robbins out of Texas has a good shot at the Top 40. In his 57 games this year, he has 64 RBI’s, 24 home runs, and a spectacular .342 batting average.

But each team has its star (or stars) and will be able to change their draft profiles during their trip to Omaha. At West Virginia, Gavin Kelly hit .384, slugged a ridiculous .720 with a 1.204 OPS. Adding 17 home runs and 57 RBI’s makes him West Viriginia’s top hitting threat. On the pitching side, Maxx Yehl held down a 2.10 ERA in 90 innings pitched holding opposing hitters to a .219 batting average.

Everybody will be rooting for Troy at the beginning of the final eight tournament. Players to watch include infielder Aaron Piasecki with a .346 batting average and .993 OPS as well as catcher Jimmy Janecki with a .341 batting average and 1.061 OPS.

North Carolina has a pair of pitching aces in Caden Glauber (81 innings, 2.20 ERA, .184 batting average, and 99 strikeouts) and Jason DeCaro (87 innings, 2.28 ERA, .233 batting average, 84 strikeouts). Noth Carolina has five players with over 50 RBI’s on the year, but their top sluggers are outfielder Owen Hull (.390 batting average, 1.094 OPS, 81 RBI’s, 7 home runs, 24 doubles) and infielder Jake Schaffner (.358, 1.037, 46 RBI’s, and 6 home runs).

Geogia is an offensive terror and good luck to Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama in the early rounds. They have 8 players with over 100 at-bats and over a 1.000 OPS: Daniel Jackson (1.329), Rylan Lujo (1.099), Tre Phelps (1.148), Kolby Branch (1.033), Brennan Hudson (1.207), Michael O’Shaughnessy (1.096), Ryan Winn (1.073), and Henry Allen (1.078). Five of those players have over 19 home runs including Jackson (31), Phelps (19), Branch (19), Brennan (21), and O’Shaughnessy (21).

For Alabama, Brady Neal had a stellar year with a .328 average, 1.004 OPS and 51 RBI’s. Justin Lebron’s .277 batting average may not pop out of the page, but his .927 OPS might and 41 steals in 42 attempts definitely will.

How Does it Work

On June 12, the final eight teams in Omaha will be divided into two four team brackets that play a double elimination tournament. Teams that lose in the first game can still battle back to win their bracket. If they beat an undefeated team in the bracket finals, they will play one more game to decide the winner.

The MCWS finals is then a three-game series. At this point in the series, it is almost always a war of attrition in regard to pitching. Pitchers are throwing multiple days in a row with crazy pitch count numbers hat would never see in the MLB.  It is an all or nothing series and nobody is worrying about injuries at this point in the season (though some MLB teams might start to get very worried about their draft choices).

The Prediction

The first bracket is West Virginia against Troy and North Carolina versus Ole Miss. It is going to be very difficult for Troy to continue their outstanding run, especially against the heightened competition in Omaha. North Carolina has an excellent team, but it may be West Virigina’s time. I see North Carolina beating Ole Miss but falling to West Virgina in the bracket finals.

The second bracket has Alabama facing Oklahoma and Georgia versus Texas. Even if Texas or Alabama make a run, Georgia is just a juggernaut that will not be denied. Though Georgia’s pitching could let them down (they don’t have stud starting pitching) they should be able to hold the game close enough to give Georgia’s bats the right opportunity. Georgia is second in the nation in OPS.

So, it all comes down to West Virginia versus Georgia. As mentioned above, Georgia has the bats but not the pitching. Georgia is number four in the nation in batting average. Though Georgia has many pitchers that are stretched out, they give up runs. Georgia has no pitchers with under a 3.50 ERA with Zach Brown being the best at 3.53. Though they have two pitchers with over 100 strikeouts, they both have ERA’s over 4.

Conversely, West Virigina has eight players with an OPS over .800. and four players with over 40 RBI’s leading to a team batting average of .307. West Virginia may not have the star power, but they have a consistent lineup with no holes. They don’t strikeout, they take their walks, they steal two bases per game and 7.5 runs per game. This lineup is going to give Georgia fits.

West Virginia is also much deeper on the pitching side. They have eight pitchers with meaningful innings with an ERA under 3.50. West Virginia has three pitchers with over 86 strikeouts, including two with over 100. They are deep and quality.

However, Georgia pitching will hit the low end of their run prevention statistics and Georgia’s offense will wear down West Virginia for the series win.