5 Worst College World Series Champions of All-Time

Everything is relative: Every team on this list is a champion, but not all champions are created equal.

And while nobody can take away the trophy, not every College World Series stands up to the 10 best college baseball teams of all-time.

Whether it was bracket luck, a fortunate bounce or just a rare down year in Omaha, these are the 5 worst champions to win the College World Series.

5 Worst CWS Champions of All-Time

They won it all, but these 5 teams won’t be remembered as one of college baseball’s all-time greats.

5. 2015 Virginia (44-24)

The Cavaliers ended the ACC’s 60-year CWS title drought, but it was anything but easy.

Virginia went 1-3 in the ACC Tournament. It limped into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed. Worse than that, the Cavaliers were shipped across the country to the Lake Elsinore Regional in California.

They quickly found their footing however, winning 3 consecutive games to advance to the Super Regional — where they benefitted from bracket luck.

Maryland, a No. 3 seed in the UCLA Regional, upset the No. 1 seed Bruins in the final.

Instead of Virginia having to travel back across the country to face UCLA in the Super Regionals, the Cavaliers got to host Maryland. The Cavs swept the Terps, scoring 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th in Game 2 to advance to the CWS.

Adversity followed the Cavs to Omaha, where they had to fight through the loser’s bracket in pool play. They gave up a 2-run homer to future MLB All-Star Pete Alonso, but eliminated Florida to win their pool and reach the best-of-3 finals vs. defending champion Vanderbilt, which was led by No. 1 overall pick Dansby Swanson.

Vandy won Game 1, 5-1, but Virginia answered with a 3-0 shutout in Game 2.

In Game 3, Vandy jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first. But ace Walker Buehler was uncharacteristically wild, and the Cavaliers chased him early and held on for a 4-2 win for their first CWS crown.

4. 2022 Ole Miss (43-23)

Last team in to last team standing?

Nobody is here to rain on Hotty Toddy’s remarkable late-season run to its first College World Series title.

The Rebels were one of the “Last Four In” the 64-team tournament, then became only the fourth No. 3 or No. 4 seed in a regional to win the College World Series.

Their 23 losses are tied for third-most among CWS winners. With a 14-16 SEC mark, the Rebels are the only CWS champion to finish with a losing record in their own conference (though, in fairness, the SEC had become the sport’s standard.) They went 0-1 in the SEC Tournament.

The 2022 team clearly had talent — more than 10 players were eventually drafted — but nobody had reached the Major Leagues as of Opening Day 2025.

Those are the numbers. The narrative? Unreal. Tim Elko became a cult hero — and pitcher Dylan DeLucia a savior en route to winning the CWS Most Outstanding Player Award.

Ultimately, the 2022 Ole Miss Rebels were a greater story than the sum of their season.

3. 1988 Stanford (46-23)

Stanford baseball was a magic name in the 1980s, winning both of its CWS titles (1987 and 1988) but also getting to Omaha six times in a 9-year stretch.

What’s weird about the 1988 Cardinal was the fact they returned so many key players from the 1987 CWS championship team. Yes, they lost 1987 ace Jack McDowell, but Stanford replaced him with Mike Mussina — a future Hall of Famer.

The 1988 lineup still featured 8 players — including Mussina and All-Star catcher Ed Sprague — who played in the Major Leagues.

Perhaps complacency set in. Clearly, Stanford received every opponent’s best shot, and Pac-10 baseball at the time was the best conference in the country.

But the Cardinal lost 4 regular-season series that season and didn’t win the conference tournament, either.

The lost their first game of the NCAA Tournament and stayed on the brink of elimination for the next 4 games. They won elimination games 6-5 and 7-5 to reach the College World Series.

They quickly fell back into the loser’s bracket in Omaha, too, before responding with 4 consecutive victories in elimination games to repeat as CWS champions.

Talk about resolve? Stanford’s final 3 victories were against Cal State Fullerton and Arizona State — teams that had gone 8-2 against Stanford to that point that season.

2. 2016 Coastal Carolina (55-18)

In the past 20 years, only 2 mid-major programs have won the College World Series: Fresno State in 2008 and Coastal Carolina.

The Chanticleers dominated the Big South during the regular season and earned a No. 2 seed in the NC State Regional. But their dreams almost ended there. They came out of the loser’s bracket and needed 4 runs in the 9th inning to beat NC State in the regional final.

They then swept LSU in the Super Regionals, scoring the winning run in the bottom of the 9th to send them to the College World Series for the first time.

The Chants lost their second game in pool play and had to battle through the loser’s bracket to get to the best-of-3 finals.

Once there, they lost Game 1 to Arizona, collecting just 4 hits in a 3-0 shutout.

In Game 2, they scored 3 runs in the 8th inning and held on for a 5-4 victory to force Game 3.

Coastal took advantage of 2 Arizona errors to score all 4 of its runs in the 6th inning, then held on as Arizona scored once in the bottom of the 9th to get within 4-3. With 2 outs, the Wildcats had the tying run at 3rd base and the winning run at 2nd base, but Alex Cunningham responded with the biggest strike out in program history to secure Coastal Carolina’s first CWS title in their only trip to Omaha.

The championship was unlikely on nearly every level, including the fact that only 1 player was selected within the first 8 rounds of the MLB Draft. Only 2 players eventually reached the Major Leagues.

1. 2008 Fresno State (47-31)

The Bulldogs are the only CWS champion to lose more than 24 games — and they lost 7 more games than that.

The Bulldogs had to win the Western Athletic Conference Tournament just to make the NCAA Tournament. Once there, they were a No. 4 seed in their regional. They came out of the loser’s bracket to win the regional and promptly lost Game 1 of the Super Regionals before rallying to beat Arizona State in the best-of-3 series. In doing so, they became the first No. 4 seed in a regional to make it to the College World Series.

In Omaha, they lost 2 more games — first in pool play before surviving to advance to the best-of-3 finals vs. Georgia. Fresno dropped Game 1, then hammered the Dawgs in Games 2 and 3 to win the program’s only CWS title.

Their 4 losses in the NCAA Tournament — 1 in regionals, 1 in the Super Regionals and 2 in the CWS — are the most by a CWS champion.

Justin Wilson, their ace, picked up the win in Game 3. He was 2-0 in Omaha. A couple of teammates made brief cameos in the big leagues, but Wilson was the only one who stuck. In 2025, the journeyman reliever was enjoying his 13th season in the Major Leagues.

Chris Wright

Managing Editor

A 30-time APSE award-winning editor with previous stints at the Miami Herald, The Indianapolis Star and News & Observer, Executive Editor Chris Wright oversees editorial operations for Saturday Down South.