Here are Michella Chester's five storylines to follow for the 2026 college baseball season.
1. New head coaches at power conference schools
There are a lot of new head coaches starting this 2026 season. Most notably, Brian O’Connor, the all-time winningest coach at Virginia, was named the 19th head baseball coach at Mississippi State last June. Big expectations for the Bulldogs this year with loads of new talent and a program that expects success. It will be fun to watch as they start the year as the D1Baseball preseason No. 4 team.
Tony Vitello left Tennessee after last season to manage the San Francisco Giants, and former associate head coach Josh Elander has taken over as head coach.
Virginia hired Duke’s former head coach Chris Pollard. James Ramsey took over as head coach at Georgia Tech, and more.
2. Can LSU go back-to-back?
LSU looks for its third title in four years entering 2026. The last time a team won consecutive national championships in college baseball was South Carolina in 2010 and 11. They certainly have a ton of last year’s talent returning, led by Derek Curiel, and new talent incoming like Trent Caraway. A strong outlook for the Tigers.
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3. Will UCLA live up to its preseason No. 1 expectations?
UCLA enters the season as the D1baseball preseason No. 1 team. How do they handle the pressure, and can they return to the top of college baseball for the first time since 2013? This team went from a 19-33 record in 2024, reaching the MCWS in 2025, and now enter this season as the No. 1 team in the country.
They are loaded top to bottom in the lineup, led by Roch Cholowsky arguably the Golden Spikes front runner before they even take the field this year. Excited to see how they perform with a lot of excitement and chatter around their program.
4. The ACC and SEC are gauntlets
The ACC had just one team make the MCWS last year in Louisville, but they are loaded this season with eight teams in the preseason top 25. Georgia Tech at No. 5 followed by Louisville, North Carolina, Florida State, NC State and more. Then the SEC makes up five of the top 10 teams — loaded per usual. How will these teams' records look in conference play with so much talent?
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5. Who was the biggest portal winner?
Mississippi State certainly got some big pickups with Brian O'Connor coming over. Georgia got multiple big-time mid-major bats as well, with some big pieces on the mound. Texas A&M has seven guys coming in after missing out on last year's NCAA tournament. Tennessee, Texas, Vanderbilt, South Carolina and more made major moves. It will be interesting to see who gets the biggest boost out of the portal.
There are so many more. Who will win POTY? Who will emerge as the freshman superstar? Can Texas live up to the hype this season and go all the way? Will Coastal Carolina make it back to Omaha? We are in for a great baseball season.
