Overview
About 300 Division I programmes and a 64-team tournament that ends at the College World Series in Omaha.
College baseball is played across three NCAA divisions, with around 300 programmes in Division I. The season runs from mid-February to June, weighted heavily toward warm-weather and southern schools, and uses aluminium bats regulated to approximate wood performance.
The Division I postseason is a 64-team tournament of four-team double-elimination regionals, best-of-three super regionals, and the College World Series in Omaha, which has been held there since 1950 and finishes with a best-of-three final.
Season Format
Recent Champions
Most recent first. Seasons still in progress are marked.
History
The first College World Series was held in Kalamazoo in 1947 and moved to Omaha three years later, where it has stayed. The tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1999 and added the super regional round.
Aluminium bats arrived in 1974 and transformed offence; the BBCOR standard imposed in 2011 pulled scoring back sharply. Name, image and likeness rights from 2021 and the transfer portal have changed roster construction as much as in any other college sport, and MLB's draft was moved to July, mid-College World Series, in 2021.
Governance
The NCAA governs eligibility and runs the championship. Playing rules are set by the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee.