Is Mississippi State a college baseball “blue blood” program?
The investment and resources the university is pumping into the program would seem to suggest it believes it is one. Mississippi State lured one of the nation’s best college baseball coaches away from a 20-plus year job at Virginia with a salary that makes him the second-highest paid coach in the country.
Historically, the Bulldogs had the 12th-most wins all-time (before the 2025 season), have a national championship, multiple College World Series final appearances, 70 former players in the MLB and multiple NCAA attendance records at Dudy Noble Field.
And, of course, let’s not forget about the Godfather of SEC Baseball, Ron Polk.
Does all of that make Mississippi State a “blue blood” program. No, but its very close.
Mississippi State has a rich history of baseball and has had some of its best seasons ever recently. However, if you look at who is a college baseball blue blood, there’s a clear difference. Some of those differences are in the stats, others are more perception-based.
Below is my personal opinion on the different tiers of the blue blood college baseball programs. You may agree, disagree or laugh at me, but it’s an interesting thought experiment. For instance, how much weight do you put in historical success with little-to-no success in recent seasons? Or what about the programs that have only been successful the last two or three decades?
Here’s what I came up with and I’ve broken up into four different tiers. I’ve also added some short explanations for my decisions that you’re free to take and mock me with.
Arizona, Cal State Fullerton, LSU, Texas, USC
Nothing about this is easy, but listing those first three here was an easy decision. USC has the most national titles (12) all-time, LSU has the most post-2000) and Texas has six titles and six runner-up finishes (one to LSU) and is second in all-time wins.
Arizona has four national titles, the most recent coming in 2012 and was a runner-up in 2016.
Cal State Fullerton’s 2004 national title keeps them in this tier, plus they won three with Augie Garrido as its coach (Fun fact: Garrido cut Kevin Costner from a CSUF team.)
Florida, Miami, Mississippi State, Oregon State, South Carolina, Vanderbilt
If we only looked at college baseball from 2000, these teams would deserve to be blue bloods. But if you look at their histories before 2000, it’s not that great. Vanderbilt had four NCAA tournament appearances before Tim Corbin arrived in Nashville and has become of the nation’s best programs (two CWS titles) since then. Oregon State won back-to-back national titles and again in 2018.
To be blunt, Mississippi State wouldn’t be in this category without its 2021 national title. Neither would Florida without its 2017 title. Both programs consider themselves blue blood-level programs and have the history to back it up. They’re just missing the multiple national titles needed to move up a tier.
Speaking of teams needing national championships…
Arkansas, Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina
One national championship for any of these teams would immediately move them up to the next tier. In fact, one or two might move all the way up to the “No-Doubters” tier.
Each of these teams has had a lot of success. Florida State has 3,120 wins in its history, North Carolina has 3,043, Clemson has 2,891 and Arkansas has 2,436.
Arkansas has 11 CWS appearances (two finals), Florida State has 24 (three finals) and both Clemson and North Carolina have 12. And for each of them, those CWS appearances span five decades.
Arizona State, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma State, Stanford
These are programs that deserve a mention for one reason or another, but the recent success has been hard to come by.
Arizona State has five national titles, but the last one was in 1981 and the Sun Devils’ last CWS finals appearance was in 1998. Minnesota was great in the 1960s, Oklahoma State has a national title (1959 and six finals appearances (last was in 1990) and you get the idea.
So, there you have it. Those are the college baseball blue blood programs. Sure, there are teams building programs that are likely to end up on this at some point (Tennessee, Georgia, Texas A&M, UCLA, Oregon, Ole Miss and others), but they don’t deserve the be added currently.
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