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I hate it more than anything, but which program gets all the accolades as being arguably the most dominate college baseball program? It's tu. Why? Not because of all of their 50 win seasons, or Super Regional appearances, or even CWS championships. It has everything to do with their CWS appearances. USC blows them out of the water in terms of championships, but some purists still argue that tu is the more dominate program because of the number of CWS appearances. I wouldn't necessarily argue that, but baseball guys do. Again, Omaha is everything in this sport.
If it is all about CWS appearances and not titles then here is the list in order of who are the top 10 college baseball powerhouses:
Texas
Miami
Arizona St - fans are more likely to think Arizona then State
USC
Florida St - Fans only remember them like they remember the Buffalo Bills
Oklahoma St - Does anyone really think they deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as LSU, much less be above them?
Cal Fullerton
LSU
Arizona
Stanford - this isn't the 1980's anymore Kyle Petersen
The
bolded teams are teams I don't think the common fans would list as top 10.
I think it is about championships, but they have to be somewhat recent championships. Which is what hurts USC as they have only 1 title since 1978 (meaning anyone under 40 wouldn't remember them winning except once (1998)). No one thinks of Princeton and Yale as football powerhouses even though they have won more championships then Oklahoma and Miami because those titles were too long ago.
If you asked
common fans who the top 10 college baseball programs are today, my guess is the list would go as follows
LSU - 6 titles since 1990 - tied for 7th in appearance but common fans would list them #1 due to titles and fans
Texas - 2 titles since 2000 plus their past history
Miami - 2 titles since 1999 and 4 titles since 1982
South Carolina - 2 titles in last 5 years - 12th in appearances behind even Clemson but common fans would never list Clemson above South Carolina because they remember titles more than appearances
Cal Fullerton - 2 titles since 1995 and 4 titles since 1979
*Vanderbilt - if they win the title again this year, they have no history, but if they win again then common fans will remember it
Arizona - not State, AZ won in 2012 and won 3 titles since 1980
USC - they won 12 titles, but only 1 in the last 37 years
Oregon St - won 2 titles in last 10 years so common fans will remember them, based upon appearances they would be tied with Texas A&M
Fresno St- common fans remember the cinderella winners, like who was the first guy to beat Mike tyson
Northern Colorado and North Carolina with 10 appearances are right behind South Carolina (11 appearances), but USCe would be the fans clear choice for baseball powerhouse if you listed these 3 schools. South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Oregon St and Fresno st are remembered by the common fan because they won. Arkansas, Clemson, Georgia and NC have all been to Omaha 4-6 times each since 2000, but they never won it all so common fans don't hold them in as high regard as they do the champions.
In basketball if you asked who is the powerhouse - UConn or Ohio St? Common fans will say UConn because they remember them winning. But Ohio St has twice as many Final 4 appearances as UConn.
A gift from the commitee gave Arkansas a home Super that got them to Omaha, but 5 years from now, hell probably next year, common fans won't care or remember that Arkansas was in the CWS for the 4th time since 2004. But they will remember who won the title, which is why people still remember Fresno St.