LSU becomes latest national champion to miss following NCAA Tournament
By David Wasson
Published:
The LSU Tigers failed to earn a spot in the 2026 NCAA Baseball Tournament on Monday, adding their name to an ignominious list of defending champions to not make the following season’s bracket.
LSU (30-28 overall, 9-21 SEC) failed to make the 64-team field for the first time since 2011. The Tigers did manage to win a game in the SEC Tournament, downing Oklahoma before falling to Auburn in the second round. South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Missouri also failed to crack the field of 64.
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Ole Miss (2022, missed in 2023), Mississippi State (won in 2021, missed in 2022), Coastal Carolina (won in 2016, missed in 2017), UCLA (won in 2013, missed in 2014), Arizona (won in 2012, missed in 2013) and Oregon State (won in 2007, missed in 2008) all didn’t make the bracket the year after winning it all.
Seven SEC teams – Florida, Auburn, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Texas A&M and Mississippi State –earned bids to host a regional. Oklahoma, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Arkansas also made the tournament field.
LSU, which has won eight CWS crowns and made nine CWS championship rounds, including the 2025 Road To Omaha that finished with the Tigers downing Coastal Carolina to win their second CWS in three seasons. The SEC has won six straight CWS crowns, as Vanderbilt (2019), Mississippi State (2021), Ole Miss (2022) and Tennessee (2024) also went all the way.
LSU won fewer than 12 games in conference play for the first time since 1983 — the year before LSU hired legendary coach Skip Bertman. They also won fewer than 35 games for just the second time during that same 43-year stretch.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
