ACC’s College World Series History Continues Down Perplexing Path
By David Glenn
With Louisville competing in the College World Series this weekend, the Atlantic Coast Conference will be represented in that eight-team event for the 19th consecutive time.
What the Cardinals may not realize — perhaps for the better — is that the ACC’s stunning lack of success in Omaha is one of the most bizarre on-field developments, in any sport, in the history of the 72-year-old league.
Generally speaking, when any conference has a bunch of teams that are really good at a particular sport, someone breaks through for a national championship every now and then. It makes sense, right?
For example, in men’s basketball, ACC teams have regularly attracted elite coaches, signed top recruits (and now elite transfers, too), won lots of games, populated the national Top 25 rankings during the regular season, earned buckets of March Madness bids and sent record-setting numbers of players to the National Basketball Association.
Sure enough, such things frequently translate to the highest possible level of on-court success. Current members of the ACC have won six of the last 16 NCAA Tournaments in men’s hoops, with Duke (2010, 2015), Louisville (2013), UNC (2009, 2017) and Virginia (2019) all contributing to that impressive total.
Similarly, when any conference lacks most or all of those above-mentioned superlatives in a given sport, it rarely or perhaps never breaks through for a national championship in that sport.
For example, only seven ACC schools sponsor wrestling. Those teams only rarely surge toward the top of the national rankings, and none of them has ever come close to an NCAA (team) title during its time as a member of the conference.
ACC baseball is an anomaly in the sense that, decade after decade, the league has produced lots of great coaches, elite players, highly ranked teams and even a huge number of College World Series participants, yet somehow it has managed only two NCAA champions over its seven-plus decades of existence: Wake Forest way back in 1955, and UVa in 2015.
Arizona’s Tommy Splaine (20) celebrates with Easton Breyfogle (12) after scoring a run during an NCAA super regional college baseball game against North Carolina, Saturday, June 7, 2025, in Chapel Hill (AP Photo/Ben McKeown)
Quick side note: Miami has won four NCAA titles in baseball, fifth-most nationally behind only Southern California (12), LSU (seven), Texas (six) and Arizona State (five), but all four of the Hurricanes’ championships (1982, 1985, 1999, 2001) came before they joined the ACC.
In 2006, the ACC tied the all-time College World Series record by advancing four teams to Omaha: Clemson, Georgia Tech, Miami (a new ACC member in 2004-05) and UNC. The Tar Heels won their bracket and even captured the opener of the CWS championship series (a best-of-three format matching the two four-team bracket survivors) against Oregon State, but the Beavers then won back-to-back games, including a 3-2 nailbiter in the finale, to take the title.
Such near-miss diamond developments have left the ACC, despite its many baseball accomplishments, far behind the recently disbanded Pac-12, the SEC and numerous other leagues in the ultimate team category. Pac-12 squads won 18 national titles. SEC teams have captured 16 crowns, including seven of the last 10 events. The ACC, after being stuck on one for roughly 60 years, now seems stuck on two.
Oddly, three of the programs with the most CWS appearances without ever winning the title are from the ACC: Florida State with 23 trips, Clemson with 12 and UNC with 12. (Arkansas is currently on its 12th trip to Omaha, and the #3 Razorbacks are the highest remaining seed in this year’s tournament.) The Seminoles (three times), Heels (twice) and Razorbacks (twice) even have advanced to the final CWS pairing before falling just short of the sport’s ultimate prize.
As usual, ACC baseball has been well represented in the NCAA Baseball Championship this year, with nine total bids, three of the top 11 seeds (#5 UNC, #9 FSU and #11 Clemson) and five teams advancing to the Super Regionals, baseball’s version of the Sweet 16: the Tar Heels, the Seminoles, Duke, Louisville and Miami.
In the Super Regionals, Miami lost at Louisville, and FSU lost at #8 Oregon State. UNC and Duke both hosted (the Blue Devils for the first time in program history), and both teams had their star closers on the mound with the chance to clinch the series, but Arizona and Murray State ultimately advanced from Chapel Hill and Durham, respectively.
This year’s Louisville squad is actually a wonderful representation of the ACC’s brilliant depth on the diamond. The Cardinals finished only 15-15 in conference games — that record ranked only 10th in the 16-team league standings — but they have surged in the postseason, even beating #1 Vanderbilt on the Commodores’ home field while capturing the Nashville Regional.
The ACC again is sending a very capable team to Omaha. Unless the unseeded Cardinals make an unexpected run to the title against another very strong (#3 Arkansas, #6 LSU, #8 Oregon State, #13 Coastal Carolina, #15 UCLA, etc.) field, though, one of the ACC’s strangest streaks in any sport will continue.
Most Recent NCAA Baseball Champions
Year—Team, Conference (National Seed)
2024—Tennessee, SEC (#1)
2023—LSU, SEC (#5)
2022—Ole Miss, SEC
2021—Mississippi State, SEC (#7)
2020—no tournament (COVID)
2019—Vanderbilt, SEC (#2)
2018—Oregon State, Pac-12 (#3)
2017—Florida, SEC (#3)
2016—Coastal Carolina, Big South
2015—Virginia, ACC
2014—Vanderbilt, SEC (top-16)
2013—UCLA, Pac-12 (top-16)
2012—Arizona, Pac-12 (top-16)
2011—South Carolina, SEC (#4)
2010—South Carolina, SEC (top-16)
2009—LSU, SEC (#3)
2008—Fresno State, WAC
2007—Oregon State, Pac-12
2006—Oregon State, Pac-12 (top-16)
2005—Texas, Big 12 (top-16)
2004—Cal Fullerton, Big West
2003—Rice, WAC (#5)
2002—Texas, Big 12 (#5)
2001—Miami, independent (#2)
2000—LSU, SEC (#2)
1999—Miami, independent (#1)
David Glenn (DavidGlennShow.com, @DavidGlennShow) is an award-winning author, broadcaster, editor, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, writer and university lecturer (now at UNC Wilmington) who has covered sports in North Carolina since 1987.
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