re: Rank the Top 10 college baseball programs OF ALL-TIME

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Not many people cared about college baseball until ESPN started showing games in the early 80s.

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Not many cared about it for quite a while after that as well. To a large degree, ESPN still treats it almost like an afterthought relative to other sports though that is getting better. Every game being available on ESPN+ or SEC+ was a godsend for me, even though people liked to gripe about that.

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LSU should have beaten USC in 1998

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Snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "past history is the only thing that counts". I see post after post weighting LSU's & Texas' accomplishments because they are more recent, but that doesn't fit with how I understand the qualifier. In terms of how the question was asked, imo, USC is the Notre Dame of college baseball. They undoubtedly have a more decorated and accomplished history. So if you point an unfiltered lens backwards through time at college baseball, they are objectively the top program, since they have accomplished the ultimate goal FAR more often than anyone else.

All the other stuff about relative competition levels, notoriety of the sport, etc., all fall outside of the limiter "past history is the only thing that counts", imo.

I agree. Appearances don't mean near as much. Just imagine if a team had 20 CWS appearances and zero titles?

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Objectively,Texas is ahead of LSU all-time. LSU has one more title, but Texas has 19 more CWS appearances. Unless titles are all that matter, in which case ranking them doesn't take much thought.

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Yeah but it’s a similar analogy again of Ivy League football. 23 of their appearances were between 1949 and 1985. Since LSU’s first CWS appearance in 1986, Texas has 15 appearances and 2 titles. It’s historically significant, but it’s mostly outside the modern era. It’s likely fair to say that Texas would have more if LSU did not become the powerhouse they are. However, LSU has changed all that drastically.

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Objectively,Texas is ahead of LSU all-time. LSU has one more title, but Texas has 19 more CWS appearances. Unless titles are all that matter

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Objectively titles are what matter and the overall look but titles are what matter the most. Like the poster said earlier LSU 7 is much more impressive than USC 12. Had USC won those 12 when there was competition than USC would be ahead.
1.LSU
2. USC
3. Texas

Fun exercise - reminds me of a very good debate about parity in college baseball on the rant about a year ago. One thing this list does is it reminds me how much of this sport has migrated from California and Arizona to the southeast. I mean, we took Arizona’s coach not long after he took a team to the CWS…

Mind-boggling that USC hardly even makes the tournament anymore. When was the last time Fullerton looked scary? Arizona State?

Of being capitalized made me think this was ranking outfielders at first

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I’d bet a decent amount that the next 5 national champs will come from this group:

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I’ll take that bet. There will be a Coastal Carolina or a Fresno State in there somewhere. Plus you don’t have last season’s champs in that list. As much as I hate it, TAMU could do it.