Only one-quarter of the teams that entered the 2026 NCAA baseball tournament remain alive after a historically unpredictable regional round. For the 16 teams still in the mix, College World Series berths are on the line this weekend in the super regionals. Best-of-three series will unfold across eight sites, and the winners of those battles will be bound for Omaha, Nebraska, where they will compete for a national championship.
This year's super regionals will have more than just a little southern flair. Traditionally, the further south and further east one travels, the better the baseball becomes. That reigns especially true in 2026, with no super regionals being held west of Texas and none further north than West Virginia. Furthermore, seven of the 16 participants hail from the SEC, which is in prime position to win a seventh consecutive CWS title.
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College baseball's most prolific conference will not be free from competition, though. There are still two national seeds alive out of the Big 12, and multiple Cinderella stories threaten to continue all the way to Omaha.
Here are our picks for the 2026 college baseball super regionals.
Morgantown Super Regional
Matchup: No. 16 West Virginia vs. Cal Poly Schedule: June 5-7 Location: Kendrick Family Ballpark | Morgantown, West Virginia
One of two rising programs will head to the College World Series for the first time via the Morgantown Super Regional. This is the third consecutive trip to the supers for West Virginia, while Cal Poly heads across the country on the heels of its first regional championship.
Two outstanding pitching staffs go head-to-head in this matchup, and Cal Poly's unit is scorching hot. It did not allow more than two runs in any of its regional outings, and it went on a tear in May. The Mountaineers' stable of arms is more refined and features the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year in Maxx Yehl. He left his Saturday start in the regional with an injury but returned for Game 7 and tossed five innings of one-run ball with six punchouts.
West Virginia's arms are just slightly more productive, its offense cooked opposing pitchers in the regionals, and it rattled off three wins against power conference foes last weekend while Cal Poly scooted through the Los Angeles Regional without playing top-seeded UCLA. Pick: West Virginia
Troy Super Regional
Matchup: Troy vs. Little Rock Schedule: June 5-7 Location: Riddle-Pace Field | Troy, Alabama
Troy is a team on a mission. After the selection committee held the Trojans out of last year's field in a snub that did not sit well with the college baseball public, this team seemingly set out to prove that it belongs on the same field as the big brands. Playing with that kind of edge while also boasting legitimate star power -- sophomore catcher Jimmy Janicki has the makings of a future first-round pick -- makes Troy perhaps the most dangerous non-national seed in the field.
Little Rock has some sweet mojo, too. This program was a thorn in LSU's side last year, and it completed a full-on breakthrough in last weekend's Hattiesburg Regional with three straight wins.
If a No. 4 seed returns to Omaha for the third time in four years, this is the more likely of the two paths. But Troy is coming off the flashier weekend, having eliminated Miami and racked up 26 runs across two games against Florida. The Trojans are rolling. Pick: Troy
Chapel Hill Super Regional
Matchup: No. 5 North Carolina vs. USC Schedule: June 5-7 Location: Boshamer Stadium | Chapel Hill, North Carolina
North Carolina faced arguably the toughest regional field in the tournament and made it through without a sweat. USC presents another serious test as the No. 8-ranked team in RPI. The selection committee did the Tar Heels no favors in constructing their path to Omaha, but a team as well-rounded as this one should feel confident in its ability to advance, considering it lost just one regular-season series.
USC has been a tricky team to gauge all year because, for all of its top-end talent, it regularly hit its head on a low ceiling, losing to all but one of its Quad 1 opponents in the regular season. Suddenly, it looks like the Trojans figured out how to beat good teams. The bats reached another gear in the College Station Regional with scoring outputs of 5, 19, 15, 14 and 7 runs while the excellent pitching staff did its thing en route to four straight wins.
The Trojans need to win Mason Edwards' outing in order to get past the Tar Heels. With the offense playing its best ball of the year, that looks more likely now than ever. Pick: USC
Auburn Super Regional
Matchup: No. 4 Auburn vs. Ole Miss Schedule: June 5-7 Location: Plainsman Park | Auburn, Alabama
It is not often that two teams from the same conference meet in the tournament, having played exactly zero games against each other all year, but that is the case with Auburn and Ole Miss. There are no prior data points to lean on in this all-SEC super regional.
The pitching in this series promises to be phenomenal, with Auburn boasting one of college baseball's greatest staffs and Ole Miss offering a unit that is not far behind. The Tigers own a slight edge in the batter's box, too, and the young tandem of freshman first baseman Ethin Bingaman and sophomore catcher Chase Fralick was outstanding last weekend.
This feels like a toss-up, so the edge goes to the team that has been more reliable all year. Auburn, even though it lost its regional opener to Milwaukee, was the better team down the stretch in SEC play. Pick: Auburn
Lawrence Super Regional
Matchup: No. 15 Kansas vs. Oklahoma Schedule: June 6-8 Location: Hoglund Ballpark | Lawrence, Kansas
These might be the early years of a Kansas baseball golden age. Dan Fitzgerald has done nothing but make the Jayhawks better year after year since taking over in 2023, and suddenly, they are the favorites in a super regional. In comes a suddenly dangerous Oklahoma team, however, that just rattled off two wins in three tries against Georgia Tech and the best offense in the nation.
The Sooners picked the right time to finally win a series against a national power. Before last weekend, they were just 1-6 in series against tournament teams and had lost six in a row. The Jayhawks, meanwhile, lost just one such weekend and are on another one of their tears, having seemingly been woken up by a late-season sweep at the hands of West Virginia.
Kansas just proved with back-to-back wins over Arkansas that middle-tier SEC competition is manageable, and if it replicates that feat this weekend, it will head to its first CWS since 1993. Pick: Kansas
Tuscaloosa Super Regional
Matchup: No. 7 Alabama vs. St. John's Schedule: June 6-8 Location: Sewell-Thomas Stadium | Tuscaloosa, Alabama
The Tuscaloosa Super Regional features two teams that know how to win close games. It has been a trend all year for Alabama and St. John's, and it was apparent in the regionals when the Crimson Tide won by a pair of two-run margins, and the Red Storm won a pair of one-run decisions. Something has to give when they go head-to-head, albeit with the distinct possibility that Alabama runs away with the series.
Teams that struggle to put opponents away are the most ripe for upsets. It is a real equalizer. Alabama is far more talented than St. John's and will have the best players on the field in Justin Lebron and Brady Neal, but even then, the offense consistently shows enough holes to keep things manageable for its foes.
St. John's is better than its No. 4 seed suggests, and it has the requisite balance between offense and defense to pull off this upset and follow in the footsteps of 2025 Murray State and 2023 Oral Roberts to chart a path to Omaha. Pick: St. John's
Austin Super Regional
Matchup: No. 6 Texas vs. No. 11 Oregon Schedule: June 6-8 Location: UFCU Disch-Falk Field | Austin, Texas
Two powerful offenses and two excellent pitching staffs battle in Austin this weekend in what projects as a strength-on-strength showdown. Oregon ranks 18th nationally in home runs, while Texas trails ever so slightly behind at No. 21. The Ducks boast the 10th-best team ERA in the land, and the Longhorns are five spots back at No. 15. They accumulated their stats against similarly challenging schedules, so on paper, this is about as evenly matched as the No. 6 and No. 11 seed lines suggest.
The edge lies with the team that has been hitting the ball better of late. For all of Oregon's successes, Mark Wasikowski's bats have cooled off significantly with the recent uptick in opponent caliber. Texas, on the other hand, mashed its way through the month of May.
Aiden Robbins and Anthony Pack Jr. clubbed four home runs apiece in the Austin Regional, and three of Pack's round-trippers came in Friday's opener. If they stay hot at the dish, Oregon will not be able to keep up, considering it is about to see the overwhelming duo of Dylan Volantis and Ruger Riojas on the mound. Pick: Texas
Athens Super Regional
Matchup: No. 3 Georgia vs. No. 14 Mississippi State Schedule: June 6-8 Location: Foley Field | Athens, Georgia
While one of the two all-SEC super regionals provides a fresh matchup, the one in Athens pits a couple of familiar foes against each other. Georgia and Mississippi State will meet for the fifth, sixth and potentially seventh times this year when they square off at Foley Field. The home Bulldogs seek to remain unbeaten against the visiting Bulldogs after taking each of the first four contests.
Mississippi State should have optimism that it can buck the trend. Ace Ryan McPherson is healthy again, and Georgia did not see him in the regular season. Plus, Georgia will be without third baseman Tre Phelps in Game 1 after he was ejected in the regional final for taunting the Liberty dugout on a home run.
There is a reason Georgia controlled this series in the regular season, though. The Bulldogs feature the best offense remaining in the tournament. Their nation-leading 174 home runs were a factor in their 4-0 sweep of the other Bulldogs, and that power is not going away. Pick: Georgia
College World Series national championship odds
Odds via FanDuel
- North Carolina (+380)
- Texas (+450)
- Georgia (+550)
- Auburn (+550)
- Mississippi State (+650)
- West Virginia (+1200)
- Alabama (+1700)
- Kansas (+1800)
