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Written by Michael Koh
Though the Diamond Heels won’t be in Omaha, this year’s College World Series field is still a good sign.
A season after perhaps one of the most top-heavy “Omaha Eights” ever, with four schools each from the ACC and SEC, the 2025 College World Series features a motley crew of schools from across the spectrum of college baseball.
The eight teams represent six different conferences, with Oregon State qualifying as an independent. Only the SEC will send multiple teams – Arkansas and LSU – to Omaha, though it should be noted the Evil Empire sent 13 total teams to the tournament. The Razorbacks and Tigers will play each other in their first Omaha games, mercifully guaranteeing the College World Series finals won’t be an All-SEC lovefest for the third straight summer.
Aside from the three aforementioned teams, Omaha will also host Louisville from the ACC, UCLA from the Big Ten, Arizona from the Big 12, Coastal Carolina from the Sun Belt and Murray State from the Missouri Valley Conference.
Of course, the biggest story of the tournament is the unbelievable run from the Racers to their first College World Series appearance in program history. Murray State was the No. 4 seed in its own region, but defeated No. 10 overall seed Ole Miss twice in Oxford to advance to the Super Regionals, then defeated Duke twice in Durham after dropping the first game of the weekend to punch its ticket.
It’s only the fourth time ever a No. 4 regional seed has made it all the way to Omaha, but anyone who has followed this tournament in years past knows the Racers’ glass slippers are a feature, not a bug. Who could forget the magical run of Fresno State in 2008, when the 4-seed Bulldogs won the whole darn thing, while beating UNC twice in Omaha along the way?
Even the bigger programs with Omaha pedigrees, such as Louisville and Arizona, had to spring major upsets as unseeded teams to reach this point. UCLA, the No. 15 overall seed, became the beneficiary of an upset after unseeded UT-San Antonio stunned No. 2 overall seed Texas in Austin, gifting the Bruins a home Super Regional against the Roadrunners. UCLA advanced after a clean 2-0 sweep.
Three-time champ Oregon State isn’t without its own adversity, having to deal with the death of its conference and playing 35 games away from home as an independent this season. Something tells me Diamond Heels fans won’t be pulling for the Beavers, though.
Together, this field forms the first Omaha octet with no repeat visitors from the previous season since 1957.
The heavyweight 2024 College World Series field, along with the almost unbelievably chalky 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, had caused some observers to proclaim the death of Cinderella. Fortunately, there do still appear to be some corners of college sports where the clock has not yet struck midnight.
Featured image via Associated Press/Vasha Hunt
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