096: CWS common opponents
A look at the previous meetings between the 2024 College World Series participants.
The 2024 College World Series starts tomorrow at 2 pm ET as Virginia faces North Carolina. This edition of CWS features four teams from the ACC and four from the SEC.
The double-elimination tournament has two pools:
Tennessee, Florida State, Virginia, North Carolina
Texas A&M, Florida, Kentucky, NC State
The winner of each pool advances to a three-game series to determine a national champion.
Tennessee is the lone SEC team paired with three ACC teams while NC State returns the favor as the lone ACC team with three SEC teams. If there is an all SEC final, it will feature Tennessee and if there is an all ACC final, it will feature NC State.
Given these teams only come from two conferences, it’s no surprise many of these teams have previously played this season. Coaches will say the teams are different now than earlier in the season, but I still think you can glean some information about how these teams matched up with one another.
Read the table below from left to right. It shows the overall record for any teams that played against each other, including the overall run differential. Location of games is not shown.
Every CWS participant has played at least two of the other participants:
Florida is 4-8 with a -40 run differential in games against Tennessee, Florida State, Texas A&M, and Kentucky.
Tennessee is 5-2 with a +24 run differential against the three other SEC teams in the CWS.
Florida State is 5-1 with a +41 run differential against Florida, Virginia, and NC State. The Seminoles have played as many games (3) against CWS teams from the SEC than teams from its own conference.
Virginia is 3-4 with a -8 run differential against the three other ACC teams.
NC State is 5-3 with a -9 run differential against thee three other ACC teams.
North Carolina is 2-4 with a +6 run differential against Virginia and NC State, but did not play Florida State this season.
Texas A&M is 1-3 with a -3 run differential against Tennessee and Florida.
Kentucky is 3-3 with a -11 run differential against Florida and Tennessee.
Of course, not all of the teams will meet again or at all due to the pool structure.
Remember previous research shows that baseball is the most random in terms of the talented team winning in a playoff format. It was suggested a best of 75 series was needed in Major League Baseball to have the better team win.
College baseball’s playoff format and teams are even more random. My guess is the next two weeks will prove it too.
Data from the table was pulled from D1baseball.com. You can see the code for the table, and please consider subscribing below if you haven’t already.