Over the weekend, LSU baseball defeated Coastal Carolina in the championship round of the Men’s College World Series. With the win, the Tigers claimed their eighth national championship, and their second in three years.
USC, of course, has won the most national championships of any program, with 12 titles. After LSU’s latest triumph, however, ESPN’s Ryan McGee argued that the Tigers have now surpassed the Trojans as college baseball’s greatest program.
“LSU does not own the record for most national championship rings,” McGee wrote. “That belongs to USC. But none of the Trojans’ dozen championships have come during this century. Their last win was in 1998, and that was their first in 20 years. No one will ever replicate what head coach Rod Dedeaux’s teams did, winning seven of their titles during an 11-year span from 1968 to 1978. But Bertman’s teams won five in 10 years, between 1991 and 2000. Now current head coach Jay Johnson, who has said the best part of the job is his friendship with Bertman, has won two in three seasons.
“USC made its first appearance in 1948, and Texas made its debut one year later, participants in the last two Series played before the event was moved to Omaha. They have compiled their prodigious numbers over the span of 75-plus summers. LSU didn’t crash the party until 1986. It won its first title five years later.
“So, all that the Tigers have accomplished has taken place over a lengthy yet comparatively compressed period of time. And that makes their résumé all the more impressive.
“Everything they [LSU] do now is just more icing on the King Cake. College baseball’s kings. A crown that now feels indisputable.”
USC fans will almost certainly disagree with McGee’s assessment. However, the Trojans have won just one national title since 1980, and pretty much no USC fan under the age of 30 has any memory of the program being elite. Hence, the Trojans’ focus should be on head coach Andy Stankiewicz’s efforts to restore USC baseball to its glory days, rather than what outsiders may think of where they stand.
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