The College World Series in Omaha Nebraska

The Long Road to the NCAA Baseball Championship is Getting Rougher

Jun 28, 2009

Omaha building a new stadium to crown college baseball's national champion, but winning there will still require a great pitching staff, good hitting and a little luck.

When senior pitcher Louis Coleman struck out the last Texas Longhorn batter to give Louisiana State University (LSU) the 2009 collegiate baseball championship, he ended a long journey that is becoming more challenging as well as more appealing every year. It’s the bumpy road to Omaha that attracts college teams every year.

As soon as the depressed Longhorns got home, Austin fans began talking about the road back to Omaha in 2010.

The College World Series (CWS) doesn’t match the crowds, dollars or media coverage generated by the football Bowl Championship Series (BCS) or the Final Four basketball tournament. Cheerleading is usually left to some enthusiastic fan(s) in the stands.

CWS Growing Each Season

But for college baseball, the CWS is the 14-caret diamond at the end of the rainbow.

The diamond grows every season. CWS attendance grew from 17,805 in 1950 to 330,099 in 2008 and, despite the national recession, to 336,076 in 2009.

ESPN now provides national TV coverage and in 2009 the telecasts had a major sponsor. Capitol One produced humorous baseball-oriented commercials for the series.

From Rosenblatt to Ameritrade

Rosenblatt Stadium, where Omaha has hosted the CWS since 1950, has become a shrine to college baseball. But Omaha is building a $120 million downtown stadium to keep the series there through 2035. TD Ameritrade of Omaha has committed $20 million to put its name on the new stadium.

But if the CWS diamond is shining brighter every year, it is becoming tougher for teams to even get to Omaha and much tougher to win there.

NCAA Has 287 Division 1 Schools

The NCAA has 287 Division 1 schools that can offer up to 11.78 full baseball scholarships per year. Coaches often give partial scholarships so that they can spread their 11.78 limit among more players.

The national baseball tournament was started in 1947. Only 23 schools have won the title.

The annual challenge begins in dozens of small stadiums where most college teams play before a few hundred or a few thousand fans. Many Northern teams head South early in the season to avoid late snowfalls.

Eight Southestern Conference Teams Qualified

The first goal for most schools is to finish high enough in their conference races to qualify for one of 64 spots in the 16 NCAA regional tournaments. The tough Southeastern Confernce landed eight teams in the 2009 regionals, but most conferences qualify only one or two.

Baseball Luck

Baseball luck, such as bad bounces, missed calls by umpires and unlucky pairings (Rice having to play LSU in a Super Regional) affect teams in all the tournaments.

The 16 regional tournament winners pair off into eight Super Regionals, where a team must win two of three games to advance to the CWS.

Super pitchers can wreck even hard hitting teams. After averaging nearly 10 runs in its first four CWS games, LSU was held to one run by Texas' Taylor Jungmann in the second game of their championship series. LSU scored 18 in its two other Texas games.

To win its sixth national championship, LSU won 56 of 73 games, including 15 of its last 16.

The copyright of the article The College World Series in Omaha Nebraska in College Baseball is owned by Carroll Trosclair. Permission to republish The College World Series in Omaha Nebraska in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.