MCWS

• Elizabeth MerrillJun 15, 2025, 09:00 AM ET

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  Elizabeth Merrill is a senior writer for ESPN. She previously wrote for The Kansas City Star and The Omaha World-Herald.

OMAHA, Neb. — Every time a new team makes it to Omaha, Shane Hughes gets a hat.

The Nebraska native has seen hundreds of games at the Men’s College World Series, many involving schools such as LSU and Stanford. But Hughes loves it when a first-time team prompts him and his buddies to google the school to find out where it’s located, like they did last week when Murray State, which is in western Kentucky, was beating Duke in a super regional. Hughes likes to commemorate those rare years when upsets bring new blood to Omaha by buying the first-time qualifier’s hat.

On Saturday morning, he walked past the farmers market and stopped inside the Hyatt Place in downtown Omaha, Murray State’s team hotel, and bought a Racers’ hat at a merchandise stand. Hughes figured the unique logo — a horseshoe wrapped around a jockey and a horse — would probably make for a good conversation piece, much like his 2012 Stony Brook lid.

“I think Omaha old-school fans that go every year like to root for that newbie, that underdog,” Hughes said, “because baseball is a romantic sport, man. … We always like to see the little guy on the big stage do well.

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“We like seeing the look on the peoples’ faces when they think Omaha is nothing but a cornfield, and they get here and they realize it really is baseball’s Disneyland.”

The college baseball postseason was a bumpy ride for blue bloods in 2025. No. 1 Vanderbilt and No. 2 Texas were gone in the first weekend. Only three of the top 10 seeds survived super regionals, making this one of the most diverse Men’s College World Series in recent memory. Soon, it might not be an anomaly.

A year after the SEC and ACC accounted for all of the MCWS berths (four each), six conferences are represented this year, as well as an independent (Oregon State). The SEC has won the past five national championships but has only two contenders this year. None of the teams in this year’s MCWS field made it to Omaha last summer. It’s the first time since 1957 that has happened, according to ESPN Research.

Dan Tauken (left), Jonathan Hogart and Murray State are representing the Missouri Valley Conference in this year’s MCWS. Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images

Kendall Rogers, co-owner of D1Baseball.com, said college baseball — and college athletics in general — is becoming a place of parity.

“I’d be lying if I said [the MCWS field] didn’t surprise me a little bit,” Rogers said. “But I do think this is a glimpse of the kind of things to come in college baseball.

“When you look at the finances, when you look at the scholarship situations and you look at the fact that now we’re about to go to 34 roster spots, you’re going to see more College World Series fields like this.”

In the recent settlement of the House v. NCAA, scholarship limits for Division I baseball nearly tripled, going from 11.7 to 34, which would seem to benefit the power conferences. But Rogers said he thinks the new 34-player roster limit (previously 40) will help mid-major teams because the players who don’t make a big-school team will need to go elsewhere, and that it will have a trickle-down effect to the lower mid-majors.

Rogers said that some athletic programs are also pouring more money into baseball as an easier pathway to exposure than bigger money sports such as football. Coastal Carolina, one of this year’s MCWS participants, is an example of a nonpower conference program reaping the rewards for its commitment to baseball. Coastal Carolina is making its first trip back to Omaha since 2016, when the Chanticleers won the national championship in their first appearance.

“I just think the pathway to exposure in college baseball on the national stage is a lot easier than some other sports,” Rogers said. “Especially, I mean obviously — football.”

A few longtime Men’s College World Series observers noticed that the vibe around town this week seemed a little more subdued than in years past. Rogers figured that most fans were gearing up for Saturday night’s clash between No. 3 Arkansas and No. 6 LSU. The SEC schools are the highest seeds in the field, and one of them will be eliminated at some point next week because they’re in the same bracket.

It’s another example of the oddity of 2025 at the MCWS. Heath Mello, CEO of the Omaha Chamber of Commerce, laughed when asked whether his office was rooting for LSU to beat West Virginia last weekend in its super regional, because SEC teams traditionally bring a throng of fans and because no fan base follows its team more to Omaha, or has a reputation for spending more money in bars and restaurants, than LSU.

Mellow said it was “exciting” to see the diversity of teams, which gives his group a chance to show off the city to new people. UCLA, for example, hasn’t been to the MCWS since 2013.

But of course he’s happy to see LSU.

“They bring in a special energy,” Mello said. “We know that our local restaurants, our small businesses, they appreciate everybody who comes in. But they do notice the fan base that LSU brings year in and year out. And particularly that they bring a fan base when they don’t make the series. Which is why you see a lot of camaraderie, I would say, with Omaha’s CWS faithful and LSU.”

Last year, sans LSU, was the biggest Men’s College World series in the city’s history, Mello said. It garnered an estimated $115 million in economic impact, supported more than 22,000 local jobs and filled 75,000 hotel room nights.

He said it’s too early to know if this year’s event will be bigger.

UCLA last won the MCWS in 2013. Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images

Around lunchtime Saturday, Hughes arrived at Barry O’s Tavern, a four-decades-old establishment that has signs touting itself as “Baseball Central.” Bar manager CJ Olaez had just opened the front door, readying himself for Day 2 of the MCWS crush. Olaez, a San Antonio native, is wearing a cowboy hat and a Longhorns’ T-shirt.

He is long over his team’s loss in regionals — he’s more of a football fan anyway. Besides, he’s too busy to keep track of scores this time of year. He has noticed the absence of some of the regulars — and some new faces. UCLA is staying across the street at the Embassy Suites, and newcomers are coming in asking for dinner menus unaware that the only food they have are chips and peanuts.

Four years ago, when Mississippi State made it to the MCWS, the bar was hopping, he said. Busch Lights and Old Fashioneds flowed, and Olaez heard their stories, like the guy who kept saying he needed to go home and go to work, but then the Bulldogs kept winning and he didn’t go anywhere.

LSU is also staying across the street, so Olaez figures it won’t be boring next week. It never is.

“It’s nice to have new faces around,” he said.

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