UNC Baseball On Familiar Turf, Among Favorites For NCAA Title
By David Glenn
There are more than 50 reasons some call the University of North Carolina the “University of National Champions.”
Despite its awesome track record of sustained, long-term success — 12 College World Series trips, two national runner-up finishes, 20 ACC championships (regular-season or tournament), more than 80 players who have gone on to play Major League Baseball, etc. — the UNC baseball program is not yet among them.
The Diamond Heels have come very, very close to the national championship — in 2006, they were tied in the eighth inning of the CWS title tilt before losing 3-2 to Oregon State — but they haven’t yet reached the top of the college baseball mountain.
Maybe this year.
image via UNC Baseball on Twitter
On Monday, the NCAA Baseball Selection Committee named Carolina (45-11-1) the #5 national seed for the 2026 NCAA Baseball Championship. The other top seeds are #1 UCLA (Big Ten champion), #2 Georgia Tech (ACC champion), #3 Georgia (SEC champion), #4 Auburn, #6 Texas, #7 Alabama and #8 Florida.
In college baseball, top-eight seeds have won seven of the past eight NCAA titles.
From Friday-Monday, the Tar Heels will host a four-team, double-elimination regional at Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill, where they were 28-6-1 during the regular season. The other teams in their mini-bracket are VCU (Atlantic-10 champion), East Carolina (American champion) and Tennessee (at-large invitation).
Because of their top-eight national seed, if the Heels win their regional, they automatically will get to host one of this year’s eight Super Regionals. A Super Regional is a two-team, best-of-three playoff, with the winner advancing to the College World Series.
Amazingly, over the past 80 seasons, UNC has had only four baseball managers: Walter Rabb (1947-77), Mike Roberts (1978-98), Mike Fox (1999-2020) and Scott Forbes (2021-present).
Rabb (1960, 1966), Roberts (1978, 1989) and Fox (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2018) each led the Tar Heels to the College World Series multiple times.
In his first five seasons as the head coach, Forbes helped the Heels to five straight NCAA Tournament bids, three Super Regionals and the 2024 CWS. He also was Carolina’s pitching coach for the majority of Fox’s tenure, including the program’s national runner-up finishes in 2006 and 2007.
“I’ve been in the dugout twice, in the national championship games, and been that close (holds two fingers close together),” Forbes said. “I know how difficult it is.”
For now, at least, Carolina’s 52 NCAA team titles have come from eight programs: women’s soccer (22), field hockey (11), men’s basketball (six), men’s lacrosse (five), women’s lacrosse (four), men’s soccer (two), women’s basketball (one) and women’s tennis (one).
Among the university’s 20 other varsity sports, baseball is the one that has been in the running for the national championship most frequently, with eight College World Series trips just in the past 20 seasons.
Interestingly, none of those more recent CWS appearances for UNC was anything close to a Cinderella story. The Tar Heels were a top-eight seed (again, playing only home games in the postseason prior to the CWS) seven times, and they were a regional host all eight times.
Since the NCAA started specifying the event’s top eight seeds, in 1987, Carolina has been ranked one of the top five seeds eight times. In six of those years, including under Forbes in 2024, the Heels advanced to the College World Series. The other two times, including last year, they fell short of a trip to Omaha.
In the short term, UNC’s challenge is simply to survive its upcoming regional.
In the bigger picture, though, the 2026 Tar Heels also have the loftiest possible goal — the national championship, something they initially discussed about eight months ago, during fall practice.
“That’s become the standard here,” Forbes said. “That’s what we’re trying to do.”
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College World Series Trips (NC Division One Programs Only)
School, Conference — Trips (Most Recent) North Carolina, ACC — 12 (2024) NC State, ACC — 4 (2024) Duke, ACC — 3 (1961) Wake Forest, ACC — 3 (2023)
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NCAA Championship Bids By School
(NC Division One Programs Only)
School, Conference — Trips (Most Recent)
North Carolina, ACC — 38 (2026)
East Carolina, American — 36 (2026)
NC State, ACC — 36 (2026)
Wake Forest, ACC — 18 (2026)
UNC Wilmington, CAA — 12 (2024)
Western Carolina, SoCon — 12 (2016)
Duke, ACC — 12 (2025)
Campbell, CAA — 7 (2023)
Charlotte, American — 7 (2023)
Elon, CAA — 6 (2013)
Appalachian State, Sun Belt — 4 (2012)
UNC Greensboro, SoCon — 4 (2022)
North Carolina A&T, CAA — 2 (2018)
Davidson, Atlantic-10 — 1 (2017)
High Point, Big South — 1 (2024)
UNC Asheville, Big South — 1 (2006)
Gardner-Webb, Big South (D1 since 1990) — 0
Queens, Atlantic Sun (D1 since 2023) — 0
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NCAA Baseball Champions
(Last 10 Years)Year — Winner, Conference (National Seed)
2025 — LSU, SEC (#6) 2024 — Tennessee, SEC (#1) 2023 — LSU, SEC (#5) 2022 — Mississippi, SEC (unseeded) 2021 — Mississippi State, SEC (#7) 2020 — COVID/no tournament 2019 — Vanderbilt, SEC (#2) 2018 — Oregon State, Pac-12 (#3) 2017 — Florida, SEC (#3) 2016 — Coastal Carolina, Big South (unseeded)
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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