Mid-June is arguably the busiest time on the 2026 sports calendar. The NBA and Stanley Cup finals are in full swing. The FIFA World Cup kicks off on Thursday, with the U.S. Open beginning seven days later. Plus, the biggest event in UFC history takes place with UFC White House on Sunday.
Given all of that, it may have flown under the radar that the College World Series (CWS) starts Saturday, with a champion being crowned on either June 21 or 22.
Here are the top things to know ahead of the eight-team, double-elimination tournament, the 79th edition of the event.
The SEC Reigns Supreme
The Big Ten may have overtaken the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in college football dominance, but the latter is still the alpha conference on the diamond. Five SEC squads—Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Ole Miss— are among the eight CWS teams, and all of those schools save for Texas were part of the 2025-26 College Football Playoff field. Four of the five SEC participants are in Bracket 2, meaning that the conference is guaranteed to have a CWS finalist. The CWS finals could be an all-SEC affair if Ole Miss emerges from Bracket 1.The last six CWS champions have come from the Southeastern Conference, and with 62.5 percent of the field, the SEC has a great chance of extending its run. The last school outside the SEC to win the CWS was Oregon State in 2018. (The tournament wasn’t held in 2020 because of the pandemic.) If the SEC prevails again, it will be the conference’s 18th CWS title, tying the Pac-12 for the most all-time.
A Pair of Debutantes in Omaha
Each of the five SEC teams, plus North Carolina from the ACC, have made the CWS Finals previously, with Ole Miss, Georgia, Texas, and Oklahoma winning championships. Then there are West Virginia and Troy to round out the 2026 field, and this is their first trip to Omaha, Nebraska.The Mountaineers and Trojans are attempting to do what’s been accomplished only once over the last 69 years. That is winning the College World Series in a program’s first-ever appearance in the tournament, which was last done by Coastal Carolina in 2016 but hadn’t been done before that since 1956.
Trojans in Glass Slippers
Just as March Madness has its Cinderellas, the CWS has a huge underdog of its own in the Troy Trojans. It’s not only because it’s their first appearance, but also because Troy was among the “Last Four In” to join the 64-team field. The squad was barely over .500 (32-29 record) entering the NCAA Tournament, then dropped its Regional opener before entering the College World Series on a six-game win streak. Troy is the first team in CWS history to enter the event with 30 losses already on the year.If it loses two more during the CWS but wins the tournament, which is possible if it advances from the loser’s bracket to the final, then drops a contest in the best-of-three CWS Finals, then the Trojans would be 32-loss champions. That would break Fresno State’s mark of 31 losses in 2008 as the most defeats by a CWS champion in NCAA Tournament history.
2 Hotbeds Left in the Cold
California and Florida ranked first and second, respectively, in the number of players born in those states to appear in an MLB game in 2025. They are the two biggest baseball hotbeds in the nation, but for the first time in half a century, the CWS will feature zero teams from either state.
Not since 1976 have those states been shut out in terms of CWS schools, as schools within their state lines have combined to win 28 of the prior 78 College World Series (36 percent). There were five schools from those states that made the Regional, and two then advanced to the Super Regional, but all were eliminated before the CWS.
