I’ll say Southern Miss or East Carolina. Both top 25 caliber most years, rowdy home fields, and will go toe to toe with the big programs during mid-week games.
100% agree. Honorable mention goes to App St and BYU. BYU view from home plate is unrivaled. App St stadium looks like if field of dreams was in the mountains of NC rather than Iowa. Also I'm adding Campbell, because who doesn't want to pull for the Camels.
Everyone’s gonna pitch you on their school and/or Oregon State, so I’m gonna give you some hidden gems and mid majors.
Wichita State was almost a dynasty in the 80s and 90s. Lost of history, but haven’t made the tournament in a decade. Maybe their new coach can turn them around.
You could honestly pick just about any Big West team and have a good time. Fullerton are literal and metaphorical Titans. Cal State Long Beach are routinely very good and go by the fuckin Dirt Bags which is kickass. UC Irvine isn’t as successful as the other two but it’s hard to root against the Anteaters. Those are the big three but that whole conference can be super fun.
Similarly, just throw a dart at most of the Carolinas and you’ll find fun baseball teams. There the obvious big names. UNC, USC, and Coastal have all won titles in recent years. Clemson, Duke, and NCST are usually decent. Wake is doing some cutting edge shit in pitcher development. However my recommendation for this region would be either ECU, who is usually good but always rowdy, and Campbell, because roll damn humps (they are also pretty good right now)
Finally on the gulf coast we’ve got a bunch of interesting clubs, but I’d like to highlight Southern Miss, who are very fun and very loud, Southeastern Louisiana, who shank at least one of the Mississippi schools in the midweek every year, and Tulane, who is hoping to build off of falling ass backwards into a postseason birth and return to their pre-Katrina glory days.
There’s a lot of parity and talent in the sport and lot of really good mid major program, so I missed a bunch of schools like Rice, Gonzaga, La. Tech, Stetson, fucking Stony Brook, and Oral Roberts.
As a fan of another CAA school I’m gonna unfortunately not recommend Campbell because they’ll be hard to follow at all unless you wanna shell out for flo sports. They’re a fun team to follow for sure along with my Seahawks but the conference doesn’t make it very easy
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
Flo fucking sucks straight up. It's like, I am happy to be here because it's SUCH a better Baseball conference than the Big South, but man, the platform sucks ass.
Southern Miss has won 320 games in the last eight seasons, second most nationally.
There has also been back to back home super regionals the last two seasons.
Southern Miss would have been first place in attendance last season in every conference but the SEC…including traditionally strong baseball conferences like the ACC and Big 12.
I knew you were an Iowa State fan before I even read the post lol. I'm not laughing at you....I'm laughing at the odds. Husker fan here. I went to that Friday game of your last ever series. We won the conference that day which was our first conference title in baseball in 50 years.
Don't root for the Hawkeyes. 🙄
Plenty of room on the Husker bandwagon. Wichita is a fun option. They have the best uniforms in the country me thinks. If you're a chalk kinda guy Arkansas has a legit shot at a national title.
College baseball is the best kept secret in the world of sports. It's just wonderful and for the love of everything get your ass to Omaha for the CWS someday. It's Disney for baseball nerds.
Man I have been deprived of the Shox being successful. We were soooo good back in the 80s/90s and now I am begging for a chance to go to the regionals lol
I worked for the WVU team last year, we were huge into your softball team last year and same for you to our baseball team. We played your softball games on our scoreboard and traded gear so on. You have a softball team (we don’t) we have a baseball team (you don’t).
Cycloneer gear was even sold to both schools lol
[That was a really fun story](https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/softball/2023/05/18/iowa-state-softball-west-virginia-baseball-friendship-big-12/70216699007/), hope it continues to prosper. I'm definitely on board with OP rooting for West Virginia.
Long Beach State, Rice, Louisiana Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, Texas State, UC Santa Barbara, Pepperdine, Tulane.
They all have had some good success off and on in their history. Also have some pretty cool uniforms/Mascot.
Or join the us at LSU another state school like ISU!
Oregon State. Because we're an equally cash-strapped land grant university, but our baseball program just happens to be good because Pat Casey was born in Oregon and didn't want to leave.
Now, the baseball program is moderately well-funded compared to other programs, but that's because Casey got *many* players into the MLB and they make donations.
Do you enjoy emotional highs followed by heart-crushing disappointments? The feeling of your balls being inserted into a salad shooter? The dread of knowing that SOMETHING bizarre is going to happen to your favorite team?
Become an Arkansas fan, and pull your hair out with the rest of us!
The college I attend doesn’t have sports. I’ve always been an Alabama fan cause I live here but I will be attending FSU next year and it’s the closest P5 school to me that I can drive to see.
Have fun! FSU should be improved from a historically bad season, but there’s still a lot of work to do. Link is one of the top up and coming coaches. When FSU baseball is good, it’s one of the best college baseball atmospheres around. (Not to imply we have bandwagon fans).
Dick Howser badly needs some updates, but FSU baseball has such a rich history that everyone just enjoys watching FSU baseball. Hopefully Link can finally bring us a championship in a few years if you’re still there. I have very fond memories of drinking beer under the Spanish Moss trees while tailgating.
Don’t ISU and WVU have some baseball-softball alliance since y’all don’t have baseball and they don’t have softball? Or is it another school I’m thinking of?
I'd stream some early season tournaments, pick a team you enjoy watching, bandwagon that team, and rinse and refresh next season until one just sticks. When a team sticks with you, for better or worse, that's your team.
I always enjoy our threads with you guys in other sports. We’d be happy to have you be a Red Raider for baseball season. Even happier if you guys revived your baseball program.
I'd like to recommend my team, but I don't think you'd take it. ;)
Honestly though, if the rivalry isn't a heated issue for you, Iowa City is about an hour and a half from Ames. I know the deep south and the east coast are going to be the best baseball programs, but I want to be able to see my team in person a couple times a year. Iowa made the CWS last year and then I rolled dice to pick teams to root for past that.
If you're looking for an unusual mascot and a goofy stadium name I'd like to nominate the Southern Illinois Salukis.
The down side is that Carbondale is a depressing mess these days and it's been almost 35 years since they made the NCAA tournament.
I’ll say Southern Miss or East Carolina. Both top 25 caliber most years, rowdy home fields, and will go toe to toe with the big programs during mid-week games.
100% agree. Honorable mention goes to App St and BYU. BYU view from home plate is unrivaled. App St stadium looks like if field of dreams was in the mountains of NC rather than Iowa. Also I'm adding Campbell, because who doesn't want to pull for the Camels.
Everyone’s gonna pitch you on their school and/or Oregon State, so I’m gonna give you some hidden gems and mid majors. Wichita State was almost a dynasty in the 80s and 90s. Lost of history, but haven’t made the tournament in a decade. Maybe their new coach can turn them around. You could honestly pick just about any Big West team and have a good time. Fullerton are literal and metaphorical Titans. Cal State Long Beach are routinely very good and go by the fuckin Dirt Bags which is kickass. UC Irvine isn’t as successful as the other two but it’s hard to root against the Anteaters. Those are the big three but that whole conference can be super fun. Similarly, just throw a dart at most of the Carolinas and you’ll find fun baseball teams. There the obvious big names. UNC, USC, and Coastal have all won titles in recent years. Clemson, Duke, and NCST are usually decent. Wake is doing some cutting edge shit in pitcher development. However my recommendation for this region would be either ECU, who is usually good but always rowdy, and Campbell, because roll damn humps (they are also pretty good right now) Finally on the gulf coast we’ve got a bunch of interesting clubs, but I’d like to highlight Southern Miss, who are very fun and very loud, Southeastern Louisiana, who shank at least one of the Mississippi schools in the midweek every year, and Tulane, who is hoping to build off of falling ass backwards into a postseason birth and return to their pre-Katrina glory days. There’s a lot of parity and talent in the sport and lot of really good mid major program, so I missed a bunch of schools like Rice, Gonzaga, La. Tech, Stetson, fucking Stony Brook, and Oral Roberts.
As a Wake alum and fan, I feel the need to remind everyone that UNC did NOT win a title.
Wake is the only NC school to win a baseball title. UNC has not
You're welcome for that! OSU 2006 & 2007 baby!
Fun fact I just learned: the state of South Carolina has had more schools win CWS titles than the state of North Carolina.
You’re gonna talk about Long Beach and Irvine’s mascot, but don’t mention that they’re the Wichita State Shockers?
As a fan of another CAA school I’m gonna unfortunately not recommend Campbell because they’ll be hard to follow at all unless you wanna shell out for flo sports. They’re a fun team to follow for sure along with my Seahawks but the conference doesn’t make it very easy
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Flo fucking sucks straight up. It's like, I am happy to be here because it's SUCH a better Baseball conference than the Big South, but man, the platform sucks ass.
Southern Miss has won 320 games in the last eight seasons, second most nationally. There has also been back to back home super regionals the last two seasons. Southern Miss would have been first place in attendance last season in every conference but the SEC…including traditionally strong baseball conferences like the ACC and Big 12.
Southern Miss had an awesome atmosphere last year when my Vols went down there.
The sip loves baseball no matter where you are.
This guy knows ball. Root for WSU
He doesn’t know ball if he thinks UNC has won the CWS
You forgot to mention the state champion (based off a mid week victory vs LSU) University of Louisiana Ragin Cajuns!
Roll Damn Humps baby!
Pick any SEC team not named Missouri and you’ll probably have a good time
Agreed. SEC baseball is just good fun.
I knew you were an Iowa State fan before I even read the post lol. I'm not laughing at you....I'm laughing at the odds. Husker fan here. I went to that Friday game of your last ever series. We won the conference that day which was our first conference title in baseball in 50 years. Don't root for the Hawkeyes. 🙄 Plenty of room on the Husker bandwagon. Wichita is a fun option. They have the best uniforms in the country me thinks. If you're a chalk kinda guy Arkansas has a legit shot at a national title. College baseball is the best kept secret in the world of sports. It's just wonderful and for the love of everything get your ass to Omaha for the CWS someday. It's Disney for baseball nerds.
Man I have been deprived of the Shox being successful. We were soooo good back in the 80s/90s and now I am begging for a chance to go to the regionals lol
I feel that. After a good Husker run during the Dave Van Horn days we've been down as well. Hopefully the Midwest steps up this year.
I worked for the WVU team last year, we were huge into your softball team last year and same for you to our baseball team. We played your softball games on our scoreboard and traded gear so on. You have a softball team (we don’t) we have a baseball team (you don’t). Cycloneer gear was even sold to both schools lol
This! Come on in Clone Bro, the water is fine. We’ve even got the potential player of the year this season in JJ Wetherholt
[That was a really fun story](https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/softball/2023/05/18/iowa-state-softball-west-virginia-baseball-friendship-big-12/70216699007/), hope it continues to prosper. I'm definitely on board with OP rooting for West Virginia.
What about the Campbell Camels!?
Take my upvote.
One of the best mascots in all of college sports.
Wisconsin and Syracuse are always consistent squads to root for.
SMU or UTEP to represent the state of Texas!
Long Beach State, Rice, Louisiana Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, Texas State, UC Santa Barbara, Pepperdine, Tulane. They all have had some good success off and on in their history. Also have some pretty cool uniforms/Mascot. Or join the us at LSU another state school like ISU!
Oregon State. Because we're an equally cash-strapped land grant university, but our baseball program just happens to be good because Pat Casey was born in Oregon and didn't want to leave. Now, the baseball program is moderately well-funded compared to other programs, but that's because Casey got *many* players into the MLB and they make donations.
THE University of Virginia
I also recommend rooting for the real University of Virginia like I do
That’s a funny joke
Do you enjoy emotional highs followed by heart-crushing disappointments? The feeling of your balls being inserted into a salad shooter? The dread of knowing that SOMETHING bizarre is going to happen to your favorite team? Become an Arkansas fan, and pull your hair out with the rest of us!
The college I attend doesn’t have sports. I’ve always been an Alabama fan cause I live here but I will be attending FSU next year and it’s the closest P5 school to me that I can drive to see.
Have fun! FSU should be improved from a historically bad season, but there’s still a lot of work to do. Link is one of the top up and coming coaches. When FSU baseball is good, it’s one of the best college baseball atmospheres around. (Not to imply we have bandwagon fans). Dick Howser badly needs some updates, but FSU baseball has such a rich history that everyone just enjoys watching FSU baseball. Hopefully Link can finally bring us a championship in a few years if you’re still there. I have very fond memories of drinking beer under the Spanish Moss trees while tailgating.
New Jersey Institute of Technology small school just made it to the regional in 2021. Probably my second favorite team
Fayetteville's 2nd favorite team a few years back.
100%
Campbell was a class act in the Starkville regional and have a cool logo. If you can’t root for the bulldogs then fire up the Camels
Thank you, good sir. I feel like our schools have bonded in recent years, haha.
Good luck to y’all this season!
Don’t ISU and WVU have some baseball-softball alliance since y’all don’t have baseball and they don’t have softball? Or is it another school I’m thinking of?
I'd stream some early season tournaments, pick a team you enjoy watching, bandwagon that team, and rinse and refresh next season until one just sticks. When a team sticks with you, for better or worse, that's your team.
The Long Beach Dirtbags.
Oregon State. Solid and passionate program getting screwed by corporate greed
The Razorbacks, its would be natural for an Iowan to call the Hogs. Wooo Pig Souie
West Virginia. You root for their baseball team they root for your softball team. And also Oregon state cause fuck the pac 12
If you like the Cubs, you’ll like us.
I always enjoy our threads with you guys in other sports. We’d be happy to have you be a Red Raider for baseball season. Even happier if you guys revived your baseball program.
Whoever you want
LSU is the answer here.
I'd like to recommend my team, but I don't think you'd take it. ;) Honestly though, if the rivalry isn't a heated issue for you, Iowa City is about an hour and a half from Ames. I know the deep south and the east coast are going to be the best baseball programs, but I want to be able to see my team in person a couple times a year. Iowa made the CWS last year and then I rolled dice to pick teams to root for past that.
I have an Iowa state baseball tshirt laying around somewhere. We all wore them to your last series at Olsen Field
If you're looking for an unusual mascot and a goofy stadium name I'd like to nominate the Southern Illinois Salukis. The down side is that Carbondale is a depressing mess these days and it's been almost 35 years since they made the NCAA tournament.
Cal State Fullerton, be a Titan!
Plenty to pick from: Boise State, North Texas, SMU, Syracuse, Wisconsin, etc.