May 31, 2013

Vandy, UNC favorites to reach title series

Vanderbilt and North Carolina are the heavy favorites to reach the College World Series Championship Series, and the Commodores are the pick to win it all according to a CollegeBaseballInsider.com survey of Division I college baseball head coaches.

Sixty coaches - nearly 1 in 5 of all Division I head coaches - participated in the survey. Vanderbilt was selected to reach the championship series by 41 coaches, with the Tar Heels close behind with 31 votes. LSU and Cal State Fullerton garnered 19 and eight votes, respectively, and Virginia picked up five votes. The following programs each received one vote: Florida Atlantic, Florida State, Louisville, Mississippi State, NC State, Oklahoma, Oregon State, South Carolina and Virginia Tech.

Vanderbilt was chosen as the favorite to win the national championship, with nearly half (29) of the 60 coaches picking the Commodores. North Carolina was second with 15 votes, LSU third with 5 and Virginia fourth with four. Cal State Fullerton, Florida State and NC State each received one vote.

Of note, not every coach picked a national champion.

(photo by Jimmy Jones)