It’s March Madness of A Different Sort
As Top College Baseball Teams Meet in a Plethora of Early Tourneys
DALLAS – From Los Angeles to Vero Beach, Fla., and many points between, the 2025 college baseball season already has featured numerous matchups of Top 25 teams in Major League Baseball parks, as well as many top amateur or minor league venues.
It all adds up some pre-Omaha and NCAA World Series drama as virtually every school among the Top 25 is competing someplace – a far cry from 10-15 years ago when teams such as Florida State, Miami (FL), Texas, Arizona, and Arizona State awaited the famed “snow bird” colleges (see Manhattan, Connecticut, Maine, almost every Big Ten Conference member, and others) for a fun-filled weekend series against squads, which might not have practiced outdoors since October in cold weather climes.
And talk about upsets (always a possibility in the first weeks of the campaign), preseason consensus No. 1 nationally Texas A&M probably wishes it had played a home series rather than trekking to Dakin Park (home of the Houston Astros and formerly Minute Maid Park) for the Astros Foundation College Classic.
The now 5-4 Aggies fell to Arizona (ranked in several preseason surveys) 3-2 after a ninth inning Wildcats rally and 4-0 to defending Big 12 Conference champ Oklahoma State (previous intraconference rival from 1997-2011) 4-0 before thumping Rice in the Sunday tourney finale. That ended a week with three losses by the Aggies to get to 5-4 to fall out of the top spot in all the major collegiate surveys. Meanwhile, 11-0 Tennessee made its case for No. 1 with victories over OSU, Rice and Arizona in that same tournament.
Though SEC nemeses Mississippi State and A&M did not play in Houston, the Bulldogs opened with a 14-3 mercy rule victory over Rice and then lost back-to-back nailbiters to Arizona 6-5 and Oklahoma State 9-7. Something tells educated baseball fans that the Bulldogs, Wildcats and Cowboys may be meeting at a destination near them in May during NCAA Regional play.
While many of the other early season jousts almost followed regular suit, the annual Shriners Children’s College Showdown at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, sent chills up the spines of Texas Longhorns fans as highly touted new Longhorns head coach Jim Schlossnagle (via Texas A&M and 2024 NCAA World Series runnerup status to first-time winner Tennessee) lost his debut game to Atlantic Coast Conference contender Louisville 4-3 in 10 innings.
The Longhorns then reeled off nine consecutive wins and were declared SCCS winner by tiebreakers with victories in Arlington over Ole Miss and Oklahoma State, which started the year with a 3-3 mark in the Houston and Arlington fracases versus stiff competition.
The reason why Longhorns fans should not be disappointed is that the last four Texas head coaches, including College Baseball Hall of Fame members Cliff Gustafson and Augie Garrido and later head coach Davis Pierce, fell in their initial games at the UT helm and then went onto capture 30 Southwest Conference and Big 12 Conference team crowns over a 57-year stretch after the first game setbacks.
Perennial ACC power Clemson actually began the season in the Shriners Children’s College Showdown in Arlington with a 2-1 mark (wins over ranked Arizona and Oklahoma State squads) and a 4-0 worksheet against VCU and North Carolina A&T in the Clemson Invitational before gaining a critical, three-game sweep in three different weekend sites me over SEC contender South Carolina to start the campaign at 10-1. Tigers coaches and players credited those first two tourneys with the wherewithal to down the Gamecocks three times and to prepare for the rugged ACC postseason meet and probable NCAA activity.
Oklahoma, meanwhile, proved its value as a first-year SEC challenger by sweeping the Karbach Classic at Round Rock, Texas, over Minnesota 3-2 and two once Top 10-ranked opponents – Oregon State 8-4 and Virginia 5-4 in 10 innings. Head coach Skip Johnson just might have another place in Omaha after finishing as runner to Ole Miss in 2022 in the NCAA World Series after cruising to a 10-0 opening.
Another intriguing intersectional tourney was the MLB Desert Invitational in Phoenix, Ariz. Host Grand Canyon took Vanderbilt to the wire before falling 4-3 before No. 24 nationally Nebraska topped the No. 16 in the country Commodores 6-4 the next day. UC Irvine joined the fun with a 9-8 loss to Vandy following a 10-5 victory Nebraska and 18-4 thumping of New Mexico. The uniquely nicknamed Anteaters vaulted to an 8-3 start thanks to that initial tourney showing.
Vanderbilt headed west again to top UCLA 8-3 before falling to USC 3-1 (as the Trojans are off to their best start in a decade at 9-2) and Connecticut coached by Penders’ family legend Jim Penders 6-2 in the final clash of the Southern California College Baseball Challenge at historic Jackie Robinson Field where USC also knocked longtime, crosstown rival UCLA 5-1 last Sunday.
The first Puerto Rico Challenge found some intercontinental diamond struggles against SEC member Missouri, Big Ten Conference contender Penn State, Penders’ Connecticut nine and Atlantic Sun Conference possible titlist Stetson.
In the always-interesting Andre Dawson Classic at Vero Beach in the revamped Dodgertown complex where the Los Angeles Dodgers trained for decades before moving to Arizona, Missouri again crossed bats with HBCU contenders Florida A&M, Alabama State (a 10-2 winner over the Tigers) and longtime fellow Southwestern Athletic Conference contender Southern U. (Baton Rouge) with a pair of victories in three starts.
That same weekend was highlighted by the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series back at Globe Life Field with No. 5 Arkansas falling to Big 12 Conference upstart Kansas State 3-2 before topping then-No. 23 TCU 2-1 and former NCAA World Series runnerup Michigan 8-6. The K-State defeat is the only blemish for the 10-1 Razorbacks through 11 outings.
What will be the final evaluation of these mini-NCAA meet clashes this early in the campaign? Time will tell, but head coaches are happy to see some inexperienced or transfer-heavy pitching staffs matching wits with a cavalcade of Top 25 batters.
Come May, in conference championship tilts or the NCAA tourney, the experience gained in quality facilities in February or March just might signal some coveted trips back to the NCAA World Series for many squads.
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Bo Carter is the Executive Director of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and is a long time professional in sports media and information. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and has plied his trade in the Southeastern Conference, the Southwest Conference, and the Big 12 Conference. In addition to his NCBWA duties, he also serves as a consultant and columnist for the National Football Foundation. Follow the NCBWA, which produces ranking polls for D1, D2, and D3, as well as naming All America teams at both the D1 and D2 levels and the Dick Howser Trophy (presented each year in Omaha at the Men’s College World Series) at @NCBWA. If you’re a college baseball fan, you don’t have to be media to be a member, check them out at ncbwa.com and join today!
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