The Florida Gators were voted the most successful college baseball program of the past 10 years on Wednesday by D1Baseball, while Kevin O’Sullivan earned the honor for the coaching position.
D1Baseball’s “best of the decade” release included staff picks for the best team, player, pitcher, coach and program over the past 10 years. Six out of the seven respondents chose the Gators, with the last one picking fellow Southeastern Conference school, the Vanderbilt Commodores, for the top program. O’Sullivan earned three votes to win his category, while no other coach earned more than one vote.
Aaron Fitt, Kendall Rogers, Patrick Ebert, Mike Rooney, Mark Etheridge and Shotgun Spratling all chose the Orange and Blue for the top team, while Eric Sorenson chose Vandy. Fitt, Rogers and Etheridge were the three who cast votes for Sully.
Kendall Rogers on Florida pick
“Florida and Vanderbilt flip-flopped back and forth in the No. 1 spot in our biennial program rankings over the last decade, but this 10-year sample (2015-2024) starts just after Vanderbilt won its first national title, which means the Commodores and Gators each have one championship apiece in the decade.
“That extra title was Vandy’s trump card during some of our previous Top 100 Program debates, but without that ace in the hole, the nod goes to Florida, which has six CWS runs, five final four appearances and one runner-up appearance in addition to its 2017 national title. That’s an absurd degree of elite performance over a 10-year span.“
Patrick Ebert on Florida pick
“A couple of years ago I probably would have named Vanderbilt as the best program in all of college baseball, but while the Commodores haven’t made a CWS appearance since 2021, their fifth in program history, Florida has made six trips to Omaha in the past 10 seasons, including each of the past two years.
“What has been especially impressive to me is just how good the Gators are in the postseason; they won in the super regional round in each of the six years they advanced that far with their championship in 2017, a runner-up finish in 2023 and three semifinal finishes. Head coach Kevin O’Sullivan knows, more than anyone else, what it means to be a winner.”
Mark Etheridge on Florida pick
“Since 2015, there have been nine College World Series and Florida has been a part of six of them, with five final fours, two CWS Finals, and a title. No program has sustained excellence to that degree.”
Florida has reached the College World Series in nine of the last 14 years, including six trips to Omaha in the last decade alone — far outpacing every other program in the country.
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