Baseball America with a look ahead to Spring 2026

[Coach34]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It&#39;s never too early to look ahead 😎<br><br>Here&#39;s our &#39;Way Too Early&#39; NCAA Top 25 for next year.<a href="https://t.co/E667trKFSH">https://t.co/E667trKFSH</a> <a href="https://t.co/pnFgps92r8">pic.twitter.com/pnFgps92r8</a></p>&mdash; Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) <a href="https://twitter.com/BaseballAmerica/status/1948006950823751787?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 23, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Todd4State]

About what I expected for MSU. I thought they would have Texas number one or LSU

[AlSwearengen]

It's been awhile. Seems like a long time.

[The Federalist Engineer]

So MSU is a National Championship contender in 2026.

I don't see UCLA as #1 because they have one good player, feasting on Big10 competition

Auburn sucks, good record last year but nothing to worry about.

Virginia? With 3 starters lost and all their All Americans plucked?

Georgia Tech is Auburn in Yellow hats. Won the ACC and could not survive 3 regional games.

[AlSwearengen]

i don't know much about auburn, but i'm a little surprised to see them that high.
Virginia lost alot, but Pollard took alot from Duke with him.

Didn't texas lose a good bit. I'm sure they did well in he portal, but I think they missed on some of their first choices.

I'm just glad to be excited and interested again.

[smootness]

You never know any of this these days until games are played, which is why A&M and UVA were 1-2 this year to start. And all these programs will generally lose a lot and gain a lot every year. I love where we are.

[State82]

i don't know much about auburn, but i'm a little surprised to see them that high.

Speaking of Auburn I saw where they gave Butch an extension and raise to $1.5 million. I guess we have upped the stakes for big time college baseball coaching contracts.

[The Federalist Engineer]

i don't know much about auburn, but i'm a little surprised to see them that high.
Virginia lost alot, but Pollard took alot from Duke with him.

Didn't texas lose a good bit. I'm sure they did well in he portal, but I think they missed on some of their first choices.

I'm just glad to be excited and interested again.

Snagging talent from Duke is good but Duke was 31 in RPI. Just 4 pegs above MSU. So, even all the Dukies transferring to UVA only makes UVA a top-30 team.

[smootness]

Snagging talent from Duke is good but Duke was 31 in RPI. Just 4 pegs above MSU. So, even all the Dukies transferring to UVA only makes UVA a top-30 team.

It is about the talent level, not just past performance. These are young, really talented guys. It is all projection, even the guys who are proven at a lower level.

[Ranchdawg]

I am so glad just to be back in the upper echelon of the college baseball world. Sure we have got to play the games and win. But deadgum it sure feels great to be at least in the discussion. With a real coach!

I really liked Lemonis and wanted for it to work out for him but he just seemed incapable of making it happen.

[Coach34]

I really liked Lemonis and wanted for it to work out for him but he just seemed incapable of making it happen.

We fired him and then doubled contributions to the program's NIL and program. Let's dont act like he and BOC were in the same place

[cheewgumm]

At the same time there is no reason to think Lemonis does the same with as much $.

We have watched them since the Natty.

I like Lemonis but his win % since the Natty is terrible.

[Bdawg]

We fired him and then doubled contributions to the program's NIL and program. Let's dont act like he and BOC were in the same place

I believe you give them the same NIL and BOC still has the better record overall. Maybe Lemon recruits close to BOC with same money but BOC has better results because he’s the better coach. Time will tell.

[Todd4State]

I am so glad just to be back in the upper echelon of the college baseball world. Sure we have got to play the games and win. But deadgum it sure feels great to be at least in the discussion. With a real coach!

I really liked Lemonis and wanted for it to work out for him but he just seemed incapable of making it happen.

Lemonis had support but he never had the support that O'Connor is going to have.

It's going to be unprecedented support. This offseason is a transition from the Cohen era to a new era of MSU baseball where everyone is pulling in the same direction.

I don't think Lemonis would have been able to succeed much more with the support that O'Connor is going to have. Lack of attention to detail and being unable to evaluate his team would still have been his undoing.

[99jc]

Lemondick bucketboy was who we thought he was. the big boosters were not going all in on him because it was a waste of money. He was our Moorhead of baseball.

[basedog]

Lemonis had support but he never had the support that O'Connor is going to have.

It's going to be unprecedented support. This offseason is a transition from the Cohen era to a new era of MSU baseball where everyone is pulling in the same direction.

I don't think Lemonis would have been able to succeed much more with the support that O'Connor is going to have. Lack of attention to detail and being unable to evaluate his team would still have been his undoing.

BOC is way better in every way as far as fundamentals and coaching ability than Bucket. It's not close. The fact of the excitement and like you stated "Everyone is pulling in the same direction" speaks volumes!

[AlSwearengen]

We fired him and then doubled contributions to the program's NIL and program. Let's dont act like he and BOC were in the same place

Coach, there is some argument here, but one brings a “coach of the decade” honor to the table and one of his assistants has multiple assistants of the year honors. O’Conner was bringing a lot of talent to Virginia and he was doing pretty well with it. I wanted Lemonis to succeed up until the end, but he didn’t seem to know who to play and where to play some of them and that was just one issue.

Going a step further, if Lemonis had shown that he could get it done and money became an issue (other schools stealing our players), boosters would have probably stepped up the way they just did. They won’t give big chunks of money to an entity when they don’t have confidence that they will get a decent return.

[Coach34]

I believe you give them the same NIL and BOC still has the better record overall. Maybe Lemon recruits close to BOC with same money but BOC has better results because he’s the better coach. Time will tell.

and thats likely true as well

[Coursesuper]

We fired him and then doubled contributions to the program's NIL and program. Let's dont act like he and BOC were in the same place

They only began to give when they started to believe in the new administration. That is the biggest difference. What factors made them believe is a matter for discussion.

[smootness]

Lemondick bucketboy was who we thought he was. the big boosters were not going all in on him because it was a waste of money. He was our Moorhead of baseball.

No no no. Lemonis was not great in the end, and I called for him to be fired a year ago. But he was not Moorhead. If Moorhead was Lemonis, he would have at least won 10 games in 2018.

[Tater]

No no no. Lemonis was not great in the end, and I called for him to be fired a year ago. But he was not Moorhead. If Moorhead was Lemonis, he would have at least won 10 games in 2018.

More like he would have won the National Championship.

Lemo caught lightning in a bottle in 2021 and can't be undersold. His success was his own undoing though as well.

[Todd4State]

BOC is way better in every way as far as fundamentals and coaching ability than Bucket. It's not close. The fact of the excitement and like you stated "Everyone is pulling in the same direction" speaks volumes!

Some of that lack of support was because of Cohen and that goes back to the whole Polk/Raffo vs Byrne/Cohen saga which badly fractured the program.

Say what you will about Cohen but what he did as a baseball coach at MSU is pretty remarkable given what he had to fight through. We went from a good ol boy program to a NC contender that eventually did break through and finally win a NC in 11 seasons.

And to be honest the work that Cohen did as baseball coach is part of the reason why we eventually got O'Connor.

But the reality is Cohen was never going to ever completely unite MSU baseball on all fronts like Selmon has. And because of that we were never going to ever be able to completely utilize all of our resources.

[Todd4State]

More like he would have won the National Championship.

Lemo caught lightning in a bottle in 2021 and can't be undersold. His success was his own undoing though as well.

And 2019. He took that team to Omaha as well and they were probably more talented than 2021.

He just couldn't completely replace the team leaders like Mangum and TA that he relied on to hold everyone to the MS standard.

[Coach34]

And 2019. He took that team to Omaha as well and they were probably more talented than 2021.

He just couldn't completely replace the team leaders like Mangum and TA that he relied on to hold everyone to the MS standard.

He was also too loyal to kids he recruited into the program. We had a few guys on the team this past season that should not have been and could have been replaced by a portal. But instead he chose to hang on with them and it cost him. He did the same in previous seasons as well

[basedog]

He was also too loyal to kids he recruited into the program. We had a few guys on the team this past season that should not have been and could have been replaced by a portal. But instead he chose to hang on with them and it cost him. He did the same in previous seasons as well

He leaned to heavily on his assistants way too much for a clubhouse leader. Ok I need to stop talking about the past and "what ifs', he is gone and we ae in a much better place moving forward.

[BrunswickDawg]

He was also too loyal to kids he recruited into the program. We had a few guys on the team this past season that should not have been and could have been replaced by a portal. But instead he chose to hang on with them and it cost him. He did the same in previous seasons as well

That's going to be the undoing of a lot of coaches in a lot of sports in the Portal Era. If you don't adjust to the game of today you will wind up like Lemonis.