NCAA Division I Baseball Championships recent history

The following are notes and records, in summary form, for conferences and teams, participating in the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship and the College World Series (CWS). Except as noted, the conference is the one that the team was in at the time of participation. Independents at the time of participation are listed as "Ind", never as being in any prior, nor subsequent, conference.

Champions and Runners up

The number of champions and runner ups in the format #.#, reverse chronology cumulative. Updated: 20:31, 30 June 2016 (UTC).
Sum is useful for error checking. In a column, all championships and all runner ups should add up, separately, to the sum shown.

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Note: The B12 Conference record includes teams from the Big 8 and the Southwest Conferences before 1994. All teams involved were founding members of the Big 12 Conference, therefore they did not leave a conference, with continued existence, to join a preexisting conference.

CWS Participants

The number of teams from each conference that participated in the College World Series, reverse chronology cumulative.
Year across the top. Updated: 18:30, 26 June 2016 (UTC).
Sum is useful for error checking. In a column, all numbers should add up to the sum shown.

Note: The AAC was formed in 2014 by some teams splitting off from the BEa; participation is zero for all earlier years, perforce. Any teams in the AAC are included in the BEa, when that was their previous conference at the time, even when that team was a founding member of the AAC. Some of the teams included above, remained in the Bea after the split, and did not go to the AAC.

Seed and Finish

The following shows all participating teams for some conferences. Updated 20:33, 30 June 2016 (UTC).

• The "Rs" is Regional 1 through 4 seeds before play starts then "Rf" is Regional finish based on actual wins & losses. Likewise, "Ns" is the top 8 National seeds before play starts then "Of" is the Overall finish, where a finish at 9th or worse is for a team not making the CWS. A dash — in "Ns" shows a team made the CWS without having been a top 8 national seed.
• The "Avg/Totals" rows are the average seed and average finish in the Regionals, the total number of top 8 national seeds, and the total number of CWS participants for each conference.
• Clicking on "Team" will sort by team name with all conference "Avg/Totals" grouped. Conferences can be compared. For example, in 2016 the ACC average (Avg) "Rs" is 1.70 while the Avg "Rf" is 2.00, i.e., 2nd; they finished slightly worse than their seeding. While the B12 Avg "Rs" is 1.33 and Avg "Rf" is 1.00: they finished slightly better. The ACC had total "Ns" of 3 and "Of" of 1; in other words, they had 3 top 8 national seeds but only had 1 make the CWS. Looking at the teams, Clemson was the #7 national seed and finished 17th, outside the CWS; Miami (FL) was #5 finishing 7th. Finishing 1st through 7th (tied for 7th with one other team for the top 8 finishers) are CWS participants. Finishing 9th through 49th (worst at 0–2 win–loss in the Regional) is not making the CWS. An "Of" that's blank also indicates not making the CWS.
• Clicking above the conference names, on the up/down arrow to the right of "Team", will regroup by conference.

Notes By Year

General interest information that is very significant, for example a regional 4 seed winning the national championship, or a 2 winning it all in their first trip to the CWS, is probably best placed on the specific yearly NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament page.
The notes here are for more detailed information that is best compared to previous years and can be used with the above detailed information over a number of years.

2016

Although with this metric (where the basis for comparison is the selection committee's seeding), the ACC & the SEC underperformed and the BIG 12 & the PAC overperformed, that is not the clear recent pattern. In 2016, the SEC teams had average regional 1.00 seeding, finishing 1.86, worse by 0.86; the BIG 12 in 2015 had average regional 1.67 seeding, finishing 2.67, worse by 1.00. The clearest pattern by this metric is that the ACC, BIG 12, PAC, and SEC, all have underperformed slightly, on average over the most recent 4 seasons. The PAC had underperformed slightly the previous 3. The BIG 12 has overperformed 3 of the 4, but was worst in the other, and, in spite of having 7 total in the CWS over the 4 most recent, have not had a runner up nor a champion, not even once. Over those same 4, the ACC has had a total of 2, the PAC has had 2 and the SEC 3; together that is 7 of a possible 8 champions and runner ups.
In 2016, the SEC only had 1 of 4 top 8 national seeds in the CWS and the ACC 1 of 3. In the past 3 seasons, both have had champions and/or runner ups, who were not national seeds. In 2015 the SEC had 4 in the CWS, only having 2 top 8 seeded. Over the past 4, the PAC has had 3 of 4 top 8 seeded not even win their regionals and 2 of those were the #1 overall seeded teams in two of those years.

In the 2016 Regionals, 10 of 16 Regional 1 seeds won their regionals.
In the 2016 CWS, 3 of the top 8 seeds made the CWS, one more than the 2 in 2014. 2 of these 2016 top 8 seeds went 0–2 in the CWS; the 3rd went 1—2, perforce since 2 of these played an elimination game against each other. The 1–6 record is the worst record by the top 8 seeds that made the CWS since the top 8 were seeded and Super Regionals were first held in 1999.
Underperformance and overperformance may not mean much, anyway. Any group of teams that are seeded very high have little room to go anywhere other than down. Those seeded very low, anywhere other than up. However, over a longer period of time, the better teams will win more.

For comparison, given the importance of winning games to advance through the tournament bracket (3-4 wins needed to reach a Super Regional, 5-6 wins needed to reach the CWS, and 8-10 wins needed to reach the championship series), it is also interesting to compare how each conference performs in terms of average wins per bid from 2013-2016: the Big 12 averaged 4.3 wins, followed by the SEC at 3.4, Pac 12 at 3.3, ACC at 3.0, and Big West at 2.5. Translating wins to the percentage of teams reaching the world series per conference bid from 2013-2016, 48% of Big 12 teams advanced, 28% for the SEC, 27% for the Big West, 20% for the ACC, and 19% for the Pac 12. As with many tournament format championships, the statistics above show the challenges of converting high regional seeds and even high percentage winning into championships.

In 2016, the Big South Conference with one team in the NCAA post season, Coastal Carolina, overperformed all other conferences, in the process of winning the CWS. With a small enough sample, things can become very skewed. As Coastal Carolina coach Gary Gilmore noted, “We're not the most talented team in America. We're just the national champion. That's all that matters.” ^[12]

ACC: Had 10 participants. Clemson was the only top 8 seed to lose its regional. 3 of 6 hosting Regional 1 seeds won their regionals with a 4th ACC team that was a lower seed winning a regional. 1 of 3 top 8 seeds made the CWS, with no others making the CWS; that one top 8 seed went 0–2.
Big 12: Had 3 teams in the NCAA post season. All 3 teams made the CWS, 2 made the semifinals, 2 Regional 1 seeds, including the 1 top 8 seed, and a Regional 2 seed.
PAC: Had 4 teams, all lower than Regional 1 seeds. None hosted a Regional. 3 did not win regionals but 1 did make the CWS, playing in the Championship Series.
SEC: Had 7 teams, 3 less than the ACC. All 7 were hosting Regional 1 seeds, 1 more than the ACC, with 5 winning their regionals, 1 more than the ACC. 1 of 4 top 8 seeds made the CWS, with no others making the CWS; that one top 8 seed went 0–2, the same as the one ACC CWS participant.

2015

In the CWS, 4 of the top 8 seeds made the CWS. None played in the Championship Series.
ACC: Had 7 teams in the NCAA post season. 2 were top 8 seeds. 1 of which made the CWS plus a regional 3 seed, which won the National Championship.
Big 12: Had 3 teams. Only 1 was a top 8 seed, which made the CWS.
PAC: Had 6 teams. UCLA was the #1 overall seed and was the only top 8 seed to lose its regional.
SEC: Had 7 teams. 2 were top 8 seeds, both making the CWS plus 2 other SEC teams for a total of 4 in the CWS. One, not a top 8 seed was the national runner up.

2014

Only 7 of the 16 regional 1 seeds won their Regionals.
Only 2 of the top 8 seeds made the CWS.
Oregon State was the #1 overall seed and was one of five top 8 seeds to lose their Regionals.
Florida, Indiana, Florida State, and LSU were the other top 8 seeds that lost their Regionals.
Louisiana–Lafayette was the only top 8 seeds to lose its Super Regional. TCU and Virginia were the 2 that made the CWS.

2013

14 of the 16 regional 1 seeds won their Regionals.
Only 3 of the overall top 8 seeds made the CWS.
Of overall top 8 seeds, North Carolina, Florida State, Virginia, Vanderbilt, and LSU, only North Carolina and LSU made the CWS.
Oregon State, Cal State Fullerton, and Oregon were all overall top 8 national seeds. Oregon was the only top 8 seed to lose its Regional and Oregon State was the only one of the three to make the CWS.

References