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College  | Rankings | 1/8/2026

2026 Preseason Top 25

With an interesting and action-packed fall behind us, a new college season is just around the corner. The college game continues to prove it is alive and well as the Division 1 team count has now ballooned to 308 teams for the 2026 season. With new legislation allowing teams 5-weeks to prepare for opening day, many student athletes have returned to campus and will begin skill related workouts soon. Opening Day, as usual, will fall on Valentine’s Day weekend and it is just six weeks away. After a fall of evaluation and months of research and discussion, we are ready to release our annual Perfect Game pre-season Top 25 poll.

After winning 53-games, hosting the NCAA Regional and Super Region, and sweeping their way through the College World, the LSU Tigers will debut the 2026 season as our No.1 ranked team. Head coach, Jay Johnson, has now led the Tigers to two national titles in the last three season and it was the program’s 8th overall. They wasted no time reloading for the 2026 season as they landed 13 of Perfect Game’s top 100 high school prospects on campus this fall and crushed the transfer portal as well. All of that will supplement an incredible returning roster of 13 heavy contributors from ’25, headlined by reigning SEC Freshman of the Year and potential first round pick, Derek Curiel. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets make a splash for first year head coach, James Ramsey, as they will open the season at No. 2 in the poll. The Rambling Wreck may very well have the nations deepest and most dangerous offense to go with a much-upgraded pitching staff. Another first-time head coach, Josh Elander, will have the spotlight directly on him as he leads the No. 3 Tennessee Volunteers into the new season. The Vols will have a new look with longtime head coach Tony Vitello taking his personality to San Francisco as the new skipper of the Giants, but the cupboard is packed with talent in Knoxville. Coming off another heartbreaking run in Omaha, Dave Van Horn and the Arkansas Razorbacks will start the year at No. 4 in the rankings. They will field one of the most talented and balanced rosters in the nation and look like a national title contender. Rounding out the Top 5 will be the resurgent UCLA Bruins, as John Savage returns the best junior class in the nation and have another run to Omaha in their sights. Junior shortstop Roch Cholowsky enters the ’26 season as the favorite to go 1:1 in this year’s MLB Amateur Draft and will set the pace for the Bruins high-octane offense.



The SEC once again leads the poll with a total of 9 members on the pre-season list, with 3 of the top 5 and 6 of the top 10 coming from the league. The ACC is right behind them with 8 teams while the Big 10, and Sun Belt both have 2 teams represented. After that the Big West and the American Athletic Conference have a team and Oregon State is in with another year as an Independent.

Rank
Team
Conference
Head Coach
25 Finish
25 Record
1
LSU
SEC
Jay Johnson
CWS Champions
(53-15)
2
Georgia Tech
ACC
James Ramsey
Oxford Regional
(41-19)
3
Tennessee
SEC
Josh Elander
Fayetteville Super Regional
(46-19)
4
Arkansas
SEC
Dave Van Horn
College World Series
(50-15)
5
UCLA
Big 10
John Savage
College World Series
(48-18)
6
Mississippi State
SEC
Brian O'Connor
Tallahassee Regional
(36-23)
7
Oregon State
Independent
Mitch Canham
College World Series
(48-16-1)
8
Texas
SEC
Jim Schlossnagle
Austin Regional
(44-14)
9
Florida State
ACC
Link Jarrett
Corvallis Super Regional
(42-16)
10
Auburn
SEC
Butch Thompson
Auburn Super Regional
(41-20)
11
TCU
Big 12
Kirk Saarloos
Corvallis Regional
(39-20)
12
Florida
SEC
Kevin O'Sullivan
Conway Regional
(39-22)
13
Oregon
Big 10
Mark Wasikowski
Eugene Regional
(42-16)
14
Virginia
ACC
Chris Pollard
No Postseason
(32-18)
15
Georgia
SEC
Wes Johnson
Athens Regional
(43-17)
16
Louisville
ACC
Dan McDonnell
College World Series
(42-24)
17
Coastal Carolina
Sun Belt
Kevin Schnall
CWS Runner-Up
(56-13)
18
North Carolina
ACC
Scott Forbes
Chapel Hill Super Regional
(46-15)
19
Vanderbilt
SEC
Tim Corbin
Nashville Regional
(43-18)
20
Clemson
ACC
Erik Bakich
Clemson Regional
(45-18)
21
UC Santa Barbara
Big West
Andrew Checketts
No Postseason
(36-18)
22
NC State
ACC
Elliot Avent
Auburn Regional
(35-21)
23
Southern Miss
Sun Belt
Christian Ostrander
Hattiesburg Regional
(47-16)
24
Miami
ACC
JD Arteaga
Louisville Super Regional
(35-27)
25
East Carolina
American
Cliff Godwin
Conway Regional
(35-27)
 

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