Another exciting college baseball season is on the horizon, and it’s time to start previewing the teams, conferences and players on the national stage.

We look to build on our promise to provide the most comprehensive coverage with the 2026 College Preview, presented by Netting Pros. Bookmark this page and return to it regularly!

While some of the preview content provided will be free for anyone to peruse, other items will require a D1Baseball subscription, which can be purchased here.

Make sure you check out our bonus coverage on D1Baseball with D1Extra, which gives you exclusive coverage of the ACC and SEC, here.

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Preseason Top 25 Conference Previews All Americans Player Rankings Transfer Portal Article Index
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For the first time in the 12-year history of the rankings, UCLA is No. 1 in the D1Baseball Preseason Top 25. Led by 2025 D1Baseball Player of the Year Roch Cholowsky, the Bruins return eight everyday regulars and 10 of their top 12 innings leaders on the mound from a team that won 48 games and reached the College World Series last year. And they further bolstered their roster with two high-profile transfers (righthander Logan Reddemann and outfielder Will Gasparino), along with one of the nation’s top incoming freshman arms (Angel Cervantes).

Read more on the Top 25 here →

Top 25 Team Capsules

College Baseball Tabs + Mobile Grades Modal
  • UCLA
  • LSU
  • Texas
  • Mississippi State
  • Georgia Tech
  • Coastal Carolina
  • Arkansas
  • Louisville
  • Auburn
  • TCU
  • North Carolina
  • Oregon State
  • Florida
  • Tennessee
  • Georgia
  • Florida State
  • NC State
  • Kentucky
  • Clemson
  • Southern Miss
  • Wake Forest
  • Miami
  • Vanderbilt
  • Arizona
  • Texas A&M

UCLA

2025 Record: 48-18 (22-8 in Big Ten)
Coach: John Savage (724-481-2 in 21 seasons)
More: Fall Report

Top-ranked UCLA brings back an absurd amount of proven stars from an Omaha team, and the Bruins got even better in the offseason.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
65
Power
55
Speed
50
Defense
70
Starting Pitching
60
Bullpen
60
Experience/Intangibles
70

LSU

2025 Record: 53-15 (19-11 in SEC)
Coach: Jay Johnson (190-77 in four seasons)
More: Fall Report

Repeating is never easy, but LSU has the returning experience and the overall talent, both positionally and in the lineup, to make a serious run in Omaha.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
65
Power
55
Speed
55
Defense
65
Starting Pitching
60
Bullpen
65
Experience/Intangibles
65

Texas

2025 Record: 44-14 (22-8 in SEC)
Coach: Jim Schlossnagle (44-14 in one season)
More: Fall Report

The sky is the limit for Texas with an incredibly deep pitching staff and a formidable top of the offensive order.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
60
Power
55
Speed
50
Defense
60
Starting Pitching
65
Bullpen
70
Experience/Intangibles
65

Mississippi State

2025 Record: 36-23 (15-15 in SEC)
Coach: Brian O’Connor (0-0, first season)
More: Fall Report

Excitement is building for a new era of Mississippi State baseball, one led by national title-winning coach Brian O'Connor.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
55
Power
65
Speed
50
Defense
50
Starting Pitching
55
Bullpen
70
Experience/Intangibles
60

Georgia Tech

2025 Record: 41-19 (19-11 in ACC)
Coach: James Ramsey (0-0, first season)
More: Fall Report

With the nation's best lineup and plenty of emerging talent on the mound, Georgia Tech has sky-high hopes in Year One of the James Ramsey era.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
70
Power
70
Speed
55
Defense
60
Starting Pitching
55
Bullpen
55
Experience/Intangibles
60

Coastal Carolina

2025 Record: 56-13 (26-4 in Sun Belt)
Coach: Kevin Schnall (56-13, one season)
More: Fall Report

Coming off a trip to the CWS Finals, Coastal Carolina has the high-end pitching to make another run at Omaha, especially if the emerging talent in the lineup harnesses its potential.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
55
Power
55
Speed
60
Defense
60
Starting Pitching
60
Bullpen
70
Experience/Intangibles
65

Arkansas

2025 Record: 50-15 (20-10 in SEC)
Coach: Dave Van Horn (933-472, 24 seasons)
More: Fall Report

Arkansas lost its entire outfield and all three members of the season-ending weekend rotation, but it has reloaded for another deep postseason run.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
55
Power
60
Speed
50
Defense
60
Starting Pitching
55
Bullpen
55
Experience/Intangibles
60

Louisville

2025 Record: 42-24 (15-15 in ACC)
Coach: Dan McDonnell (784-353-1, 19 seasons)
More: Fall Report

Louisville brings back a super-talented lineup and a deep pitching staff from a club that reached the national semifinals in 2025. The Cards look built to make another Omaha run.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
65
Power
60
Speed
70
Defense
55
Starting Pitching
55
Bullpen
55
Experience/Intangibles
65

Auburn

2025 Record: 41-20 (17-13 in SEC)
Coach: Butch Thompson (324-233-1, 10 seasons)
More: Fall Report

Auburn’s lineup is going to mash, but its ability to compete at the top of the SEC will likely come down to how far along its pitching comes.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
60
Power
65
Speed
50
Defense
55
Starting Pitching
50
Bullpen
55
Experience/Intangibles
65

TCU

2025 Record: 39-18 (19-11 in Big 12)
Coach: Kirk Saarloos (154-87 in 4 seasons)
More: Fall Report

With star power on the mound and in the lineup, TCU has obvious Omaha upside if its super-talented sophomore class continues to progress as expected.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
60
Power
55
Speed
55
Defense
60
Starting Pitching
60
Bullpen
55
Experience/Intangibles
65

North Carolina

2025 Record: 46-15 (18-11 in ACC)
Coach: Scott Forbes (200-104 in 5 seasons)
More: Fall Report

Perhaps the nation’s most complete pitching staff gives North Carolina high hopes for 2026. The key will be how the dramatically overhauled lineup gels and handles the step up to the ACC.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
50
Power
55
Speed
55
Defense
55
Starting Pitching
65
Bullpen
70
Experience/Intangibles
55

Oregon State

2025 Record: 48-16-1 (Division I independent)
Coach: Mitch Canham (224-103-1 in 6 seasons)
More: Fall Report

Oregon State returns overwhelming mound talent from an Omaha club. If the revamped lineup can hold its own, these Beavers have a chance to compete for another national title.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
45
Power
50
Speed
60
Defense
60
Starting Pitching
65
Bullpen
60
Experience/Intangibles
55

Florida

2025 Record: 39-22 (15-15 in SEC)
Coach: Kevin O’Sullivan (756-371, 18 seasons)
More: Fall Report

Florida is coming off of an unusual fall, but as long as the Gators can put that behind them, Omaha is very much in play.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
55
Power
60
Speed
50
Defense
55
Starting Pitching
70
Bullpen
55
Experience/Intangibles
50

Tennessee

2025 Record: 46-19 (16-14 in SEC)
Coach: Josh Elander (0-0, first season)
More: Fall Report

The Tennessee coaching staff has changed, but what hasn't is the presence of a College World Series-level roster.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
55
Power
60
Speed
55
Defense
55
Starting Pitching
60
Bullpen
60
Experience/Intangibles
50

Georgia

2025 Record: 43-17 (18-12 in SEC)
Coach: Wes Johnson (86-34 in two seasons)
More: Fall Report

With 22 D1 transfers, Georgia has another older, talented roster, which should again make it one of the teams to beat in the SEC and nationally.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
60
Power
65
Speed
55
Defense
50
Starting Pitching
60
Bullpen
55
Experience/Intangibles
55

Florida State

2025 Record: 42-16 (17-10 in ACC)
Coach: Link Jarrett (114-64 in three seasons)
More: Fall Report

After losing 11 drafted players from a super regional club, Florida State reloaded with stellar groups of transfers and freshmen, keeping the talent level high in Tallahassee.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
50
Power
60
Speed
55
Defense
50
Starting Pitching
60
Bullpen
65
Experience/Intangibles
55

NC State

2025 Record: 33-19 (17-11 in ACC)
Coach: Elliott Avent (1,069-634 in 29 seasons)
More: Fall Report

Led by a superb veteran quintet on the mound and a revamped lineup with intriguing upside, NC State should remain in the thick of the ACC race in 2026.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
55
Power
55
Speed
60
Defense
55
Starting Pitching
60
Bullpen
60
Experience/Intangibles
55

Kentucky

2025 Record: 31-26 (13-17 in SEC)
Coach: Nick Mingione (295-192 in 9 seasons)
More: Fall Report

After making three straight regionals for the first time in program history, Kentucky heads into 2026 with legitimate Omaha aspirations, led by a superb rotation and an athletic lineup.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
55
Power
55
Speed
60
Defense
70
Starting Pitching
60
Bullpen
50
Experience/Intangibles
60

Clemson

2025 Record: 45-18 (18-12 in ACC)
Coach: Erik Bakich (133-53 in 3 seasons)
More: Fall Report

Led by a rotation that has a chance to be special and a lineup that got a big offseason power boost, Clemson looks ready to make noise in the ACC again.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
55
Power
60
Speed
50
Defense
50
Starting Pitching
60
Bullpen
55
Experience/Intangibles
60

Southern Miss

2025 Record: 47-16 (24-6 in Sun Belt)
Coach: Christian Ostrander (90-36 in 2 seasons)
More: Fall Report

With an older team and a potentially dangerous rotation, Southern Miss is eyeing another postseason run.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
60
Power
55
Speed
55
Defense
60
Starting Pitching
55
Bullpen
55
Experience/Intangibles
65

Wake Forest

2025 Record: 39-22 (16-14 in ACC)
Coach: Tom Walter (495-383-1 in 16 seasons)
More: Fall Report

There are questions for Wake as it pertains to lineup depth and bullpen quality, but if it gets answers in the affirmative, their ceiling is immense.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
55
Power
55
Speed
55
Defense
55
Starting Pitching
65
Bullpen
60
Experience/Intangibles
60

Miami

2025 Record: 35-27 (15-14 in ACC)
Coach: J.D. Arteaga (62-57 in two seasons)
More: Fall Report

Miami has assembled a deep, powerful, athletic lineup that should carry the load while the talented but less proven pitching staff gels.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
60
Power
60
Speed
55
Defense
60
Starting Pitching
50
Bullpen
55
Experience/Intangibles
60

Vanderbilt

2025 Record: 43-18 (19-11 in SEC)
Coach: Tim Corbin (964-461-1, 23 seasons)
More: Fall Report

Pitching and defense give this Vanderbilt team a high floor. How well its lineup swings the bats will control the team's ceiling.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
55
Power
45
Speed
55
Defense
60
Starting Pitching
55
Bullpen
60
Experience/Intangibles
55

Arizona

2025 Record: 44-21 (18-12 in Big 12)
Coach: Chip Hale (152-95 in 4 seasons)
More: Fall Report

Arizona returns a star-studded pitching core from last year’s Omaha team. If the dramatically overhauled lineup clicks, let the good times roll in Tucson.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
50
Power
45
Speed
50
Defense
50
Starting Pitching
65
Bullpen
65
Experience/Intangibles
55

Texas A&M

2025 Record: 30-26 overall (11-19 in SEC)
Coach: Michael Earley (30-26 in one season)
More: Fall Report

After a tough first season of the Earley Era, Texas A&M has the offensive firepower to make a serious move.

Read the full breakdown

Scouting Grades

Hitting
65
Power
65
Speed
55
Defense
50
Starting Pitching
55
Bullpen
55
Experience/Intangibles
55

We’re previewing each and every conference in depth in the buildup to Opening Day. Dive into preseason award predictions, projected regional bids, team-by-team breakdowns, top prospects, and impact freshmen.

Jump to a conference:
ACC | America East | American | Atlantic 10
Atlantic Sun | Big 12 | Big East | Big South
Big Ten | Big West | CAA | CUSA
Horizon | Ivy | Metro Atlantic | Mid-American
Missouri Valley | Mountain West | Northeast
Ohio Valley | Patriot League | SEC | SoCon
Southland | Summit League | Sun Belt | SWAC
West Coast | Western Athletic


Metro Atlantic

2025 Bids: 1
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  Fairfield

A perennial one-bid league, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference always boils down to the conference tournament. Last year, Rider won the regular season, but second-place Fairfield toppled the Broncs in the conference tourney to capture the automatic bid to regionals. Those same two clubs figure to battle it out for MAAC supremacy again in 2026. — Walter Villa

Read the full preview →


Ohio Valley

2025 Bids: 1
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  Little Rock

The OVC team that made the biggest splash in 2025 wasn’t regular-season champion Eastern Illinois. It was eighth-place finisher Little Rock, which snuck in as the last team into the OVC Tournament but then kept winning, all the way through to a deciding seventh game of the Baton Rouge Regional against eventual national champion LSU. The Trojans bring back a ton of key players from that team, making them the preseason favorite in the conference, but there are no fewer than six viable candidates to finish atop the league in 2026, which should make the OVC race one of the best in college baseball this season. — Joe Healy

Read the full preview →


ACC

2025 Bids: 9
Projected 2026 Bids: 10
Preseason favorite:  Georgia Tech

The ACC had another strong campaign in 2025, sending nine teams to regionals and five to supers, although just one of those five (Louisville) wound up making it to Omaha, making the postseason feel like a major missed opportunity for the league. But the ACC is once again poised to rival the SEC for college baseball supremacy in 2026, with eight teams in our Preseason Top 25, and 17 ACC players on our Preseason All-America teams, led by five first-teamers. That’s a testament to the immense talent in this conference once again, led by loaded Georgia Tech and Louisville. — Aaron Fitt

Read the full preview →


Big West

2025 Bids: 2
Projected 2026 Bids: 3
Preseason favorite:  UC Irvine

The 2026 season marks the 10th anniversary of the last time that the Big West Conference had three teams reach the NCAA postseason. This time around, the top of the conference looks very strong. The bottom of the conference is improved but still acting too much as an RPI anchor to ruin some resumés in the month of May. The Big West big wigs decided to hold a postseason tournament for the second year in hopes to make this a multi-bid conference for the Big Dance. But the big question is can this conference make this June an anniversary repeat of 2016? Stay tuned.  — Eric Sorenson

Read the full preview →


Big 12

2025 Bids: 8
Projected 2026 Bids: 7
Preseason favorite:  TCU

Conference realignment left the Big 12 with an exciting 14-team conglomerate headed into 2025. The outstanding depth of this newly constructed league led to a banner year. Eight teams advanced to the NCAA tournament and Arizona won five road games to punch its ticket to Omaha. Expect more of the same in 2026 as this is a conference on the rise. — Mike Rooney

Read the full preview →


Big South

2025 Bids: 1
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  High Point

The Big South Conference in the last decade has said goodbye to postseason stalwarts Coastal Carolina, Campbell and Liberty, and yet, it keeps plugging along putting teams on the field that can compete nationally — as we saw again last summer, when USC Upstate played well in the Clemson Regional. On paper, it once again looks like a two-horse race for the league title between High Point and Upstate, but don’t sleep on Winthrop or even Radford sneaking up and making it a bit more crowded at the top. — Joe Healy

Read the full preview →


Missouri Valley

2025 Bids: 1
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  Murray State

A team from the Missouri Valley Conference has been a force in the NCAA Tournament each of the last three seasons, with Indiana State and Evansville advancing to the super regional round in 2023 and 2024 and Murray State ending last year at the 2025 College World Series. Under the leadership of head coach Dan Skirka, Murray State remains the team to beat in the Valley, returning a significant amount of innings from last year’s Omaha squad. After adding Murray State, Belmont and UIC in recent years, the departures of Dallas Baptist in 2022 and Missouri State this past offseason makes the MVC a nine-team league. — Patrick Ebert

Read the full preview →


Southern Conference

2025 Bids: 1
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  Samford

It’s another season where any number of teams could contend in the SoCon. Sure, Samford and Mercer are preseason favorites, and defending champ ETSU looks to reload, but other teams like The Citadel, UNCG, Wofford, Western Carolina, and VMI also have eyes on the prize. It’s a conference with balance, where bottom teams can beat top teams, giving us another fun season in the SoCon where the teams are projected to be jumbled in the standings. — Mark Etheridge

Read the full preview →


Southwestern Athletic

2025 Bids: 1
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  Bethune-Cookman

The SWAC last season was a two-horse race between Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M all the way through to the final pitch of the season. In the regular season, the Wildcats edged the Rattlers by a half-game, and in the SWAC Tournament, BCU got a walk-off home run with two outs in the ninth to turn a 9-8 deficit into an 11-9 victory. Those two teams are back in a big way in 2026, but they aren’t alone in being contenders in the league, as Alabama State, Grambling and Arkansas-Pine Bluff are all good enough on paper to push the favorites. — Joe Healy

Read the full preview →


SEC

2025 Bids: 13
Projected 2026 Bids: 13
Preseason favorite:  LSU

The Southeastern Conference, arguably the nation’s premier conference, will once again have a highly competitive regular-season title race in 2026. In 2025, Texas won the SEC regular season crown in its first season in the league, while Vanderbilt earned the top national seed in the NCAA tournament. And of course, LSU won the national title with a series win over Coastal Carolina. The 2026 campaign promises to be full of intrigue as well with 13 teams expected in the NCAA tourney. — Kendall Rogers

Read the full preview →


Atlantic Sun

2025 Bids: 1
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  Florida Gulf Coast

Stetson and Austin Peay have battled for ASUN supremacy in the regular season and conference tournament over the past two seasons, with the Hatters claiming the big prize by winning the automatic bid to regionals each year. Both teams should be very formidable once again in 2026, but Florida Gulf Coast looks poised to jump into the top tier with both of them, thanks to a standout pitching staff headlined by first-team All-America two-way star Evan Dempsey. Jacksonville should also be a factor in this compelling race. — Walter Villa

Read the full preview →


Patriot League

2025 Bids: 1
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  Navy

The Patriot League was firmly in Holy Cross’ control from start to finish last year. The Crusaders won the regular season title by three games, then slugged past Lehigh in the semifinals before sweeping defending champion Army in the championship series. That ended the Black Knights’ six-season reign atop the conference and potentially ushered in a new era for the league. Holy Cross, Navy, and Army went a combined 30-15 against the bottom half of the conference, setting up another three-horse race atop the league in 2026. — Bradley Smart

Read the full preview →


West Coast Conference

2025 Bids: 1
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  Gonzaga

The West Coast Conference welcomes a new member this season as Seattle makes the jump from the WAC to the WCC. The Redhawks will jump into the maelstrom that is the Conference of Cannibals where outside an occasional cellar dweller, every team is fully capable of beating every other team in the conference. It always makes for highly entertaining jostling for positioning in the standings both at the top and in the middle where teams are trying to solidify their standing to make the WCC Tournament. Last year, the four teams at the bottom of the standings all finished within two games of each other as they contended for the final conference tournament spot. — Shotgun Spratling

Read the full preview →


American Athletic Conference

2025 Bids: 2
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  East Carolina

UTSA ended East Carolina’s six-year run atop the American standings last year, as the Roadrunners dominated the league in the regular season and went on to reach their first super regional. But ECU recovered from a disappointing regular season to get hot and win the conference tournament, then reached a regional final. With an exciting core of rising stars back in the fold, the Pirates look poised to regain their perch atop the standings, but UTSA should remain right in the hunt despite losing some serious star power from last year. Charlotte, South Florida, Florida Atlantic and Tulane all look like factors in this race as well, giving the American at least a shot at sending multiple teams to regionals for the fourth time in the last five years. But it’s worth noting that it would have been a one-bid league in each of those seasons if the regular-season champion had won the automatic bid, as the AAC hasn’t produced more than one team with a viable at-large resumé since 2018, when UConn and Houston were still members. — Aaron Fitt

Read the full preview →


Western Athletic Conference

2025 Bids: 1
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  Cal Baptist

The last season of WAC baseball is upon us. The league will be rebranded as the United Athletic Conference after this season. Four of these seven teams will join the UAC while Cal Baptist and Sacramento State will join the Big West, and Utah Tech will join the Mountain West. Utah Valley upset Oregon in the Eugene Regional a year ago, and all of teams at the top of this league look capable of playing the role of nightmare four-seed in the NCAA tournament. — Mike Rooney

Read the full preview →


Big Ten

2025 Bids: 4
Projected 2026 Bids: 4
Preseason favorite:  UCLA

Four Pac-12 cast-offs joined the mostly Midwest-based Big Ten in 2025, and those four teams – Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington – went a combined 61-23 against their legacy opponents during the regular season. At the conference tournament, however, it was Nebraska that emerged with the league’s automatic bid, the second year in a row the Huskers had claimed the Big Ten championship. UCLA advanced to the College World Series, led by D1Baseball Player of the Year Roch Cholowsky. The Bruins return almost their entire roster from a year ago, with several significant reinforcements via the portal and their most recent recruiting class, and enter 2026 atop the D1Baseball Top 25 rankings. — Patrick Ebert and Burke Granger

Read the full preview →


Mountain West

2025 Bids: 1
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  Nevada

It might not be a stretch to say that no other conference in the country has been more affected by the transfer portal than the MWC. Other than Air Force, for obvious reasons, every other team in the league will be leaning heavily on new faces playing in new places. That means there will be a lot of competition but also a lot of uncertainty. As Fresno State has shown the last two years, the regular season can be merely a suggestion and the team that gets hot at the end of May is the one who will be the ones getting their groove on in the Big Dance. But this 2026 season proves that it really is anybody’s title to grab. — Eric Sorenson

Read the full preview →


Horizon League

2025 Bids: 1
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  Wright State

Wright State has represented the Horizon League in the NCAA Tournament for four of the past five years, and there’s no reason to think that will change anytime soon. This league is down to five teams after Purdue Fort Wayne discontinued its baseball program at the end of the 2025 season, but will gain a team back in 2027 when Northern Illinois defects from the Mid-American Conference.  — Burke Granger

Read the full preview →


Big East

2025 Bids: 1
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  Connecticut

The Big East turned in a strong 2025 campaign, producing three teams inside the top 45 of the RPI, but the Division I Baseball Committee snubbed regular-season co-champion Connecticut and fellow at-large contender Xavier on selection day. So regular-season co-champ and conference tournament winner Creighton was the Big East’s sole entry in the NCAA tournament — but the Bluejays represented the league well, winning two games to reach the Fayetteville Regional final. The Huskies and Bluejays should remain the teams to beat in 2026, with St. John’s and Xavier also in the mix. — Shotgun Spratling

Read the full preview →


Sun Belt

2025 Bids: 2
Projected 2026 Bids: 3
Preseason favorite:  Coastal Carolina

Like many conferences around college baseball these days, the landscape of the Sun Belt is always changing. Last season, Coastal Carolina and Southern Miss ran away with the regular season title, while Troy, which was ranked for a vast majority of the regular season, fell just short of the NCAA tournament. This season, we are expecting three bids to the NCAA tournament — including Troy — while others such as Louisiana and Marshall look to make a move in the pecking order. — Kendall Rogers

Read the full preview →


Southland

2025 Bids: 1
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  UT Rio Grande Valley

Last season was a banner year in the Southland, as multiple teams made strong cases for postseason inclusion. UTRGV (43), Southeastern Louisiana (51) and Lamar (61) all had RPIs high enough to be in the NCAA Tournament discussion. With a unique conference tournament format, it was Houston Christian that emerged as the champion and it should be noted that Northwestern State and McNeese also enjoyed strong seasons, with each finishing 19-11 in Southland play. This is a competitive conference that can’t lazily be labeled a “one-bid league.” — Patrick Ebert

Read the full preview →


Northeast Conference

2025 Bids: 1
Projected 2026 Bids: 1
Preseason favorite:  Long Island

Last season, the NEC regular season crown was decided by a single game and the conference tournament final went 12 innings. Third-seeded Central Connecticut got the better of No. 1 seed Long Island, 6-5, robbing the Sharks of back-to-back regional appearances. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see a similar matchup this year as as one of those two teams have won each of the last eight auto-bids, alternating since 2021. Wagner and Le Moyne may have something to say about that in 2026, however, as there’s an intriguing mix of contenders after the favorite, LIU, and the defending champions in Central Connecticut. — Bradley Smart

Read the full preview →

Still to come…

  • America East
  • Atlantic 10
  • CAA
  • CUSA
  • Ivy League
  • Mid-American
  • Summit League

D1Baseball’s editors and national writers select the preseason All-America teams with one guiding principle in mind: to identify the best and most valuable college baseball players for the 2026 season. Past performance and future potential factor into the deliberations, but the goal is neither to identify the best future major leaguers nor to reward the players who have put up the gaudiest numbers in past seasons (particularly since the level of competition varies significantly from one conference to another). The objective is to select the players who would provide the most value for a team that wanted to win the College World Series in 2026 — the players who are best equipped to perform against elite college competition this spring.

View player stats here →

When we put together our Preseason All-America teams, we followed one guiding principle: If we were building a team to win the 2026 national title, which players would we choose? We use the same philosophy to construct our Player Rankings — think of them as an extension of our Preseason All-America teams.

These are NOT professional prospect lists, though they do take pure talent into consideration. Players who proved themselves against top competition in summer ball and look poised for breakout years might rank higher on the list than other players who had gaudier stats from last spring. We considered past performance and offensive statistics, but we also try to keep the numbers in context, because some leagues or ballparks are more offensive than others, and some leagues simply have more talent than others — so all stat lines are not created equal. So we take an amalgam of past numbers, raw talent, defensive ability (especially at premium positions), makeup and reports of development over the summer and fall. We also make use of more advanced metrics like Defensive Runs Saved and WAR, courtesy of our partners at 6-4-3 Charts.

Finally, remember that there are more than 300 Division I teams, and we’re ranking roughly the top 15 percent at each position. These lists reflect our projections of which players will be the best of the best this spring, but many good players in the remaining 85 percent just didn’t make the cut. We’ll revisit the Player Rankings over the course of the season and make adjustments as players prove themselves on the field.

Full Lists

CatchersFirst Basemen | Second Basemen
Third Basemen | Shortstops | Outfielders
Starting Pitchers | Relief Pitchers


The transfer portal has rapidly become a vital avenue for roster construction in college baseball. Some programs have gone all-in on the portal, and others have dipped their toes into the transfer pool judiciously to fill select roster needs. Throughout the offseason, we counted down the top 50 position player transfers, the top 50 pitcher transfers, and the top 25 transfer classes.


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