The 2026 NCAA Baseball Tournament officially gets underway with regional play this weekend. UCLA and Georgia Tech enter this year's tournament as the co-favorites to win the College World Series in Omaha, while reigning champs LSU didn't make the 64-team field. With the Road To Omaha officially in full swing, now's the time to make selections for those interested in college baseball betting.
Before you make any college baseball bets of your own, make sure to see what SportsLine expert David Bearman has to say. Bearman is coming off a 13-5 (+6.04 units) showing for conference tournament week, and he's 61-43-3 overall (+14 units) on season. Anyone following his college baseball picks could be way up. Now, he's locked in his favorite picks to win the College World Series, as well as a favorite longshot play.
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NCAA Baseball Tournament best bets
The Road to Omaha is set, with 64 teams filling the bracket in hopes of being the 2026 Division I Baseball Champion. Last year's champion, LSU, did not make the field for the first time since 2011. UCLA (+500) and Georgia Tech (+500) are the co-favorites to raise the trophy in Omaha, and for good reason. They both won their conference titles, regular-season and tournament titles. UCLA has been the No. 1-ranked team all season long, the first team to go wire-to-wire in the sport's history. Beyond UCLA and Georgia Tech, there are five SEC schools and North Carolina filling out the top eight national seeds. Where are the betting edges for the 64-team event? Let's dive in.
College World Series picks
- Georgia Tech (+500)
- Florida (+1800)
- Oregon (+6000)
There are two teams that stand out above the rest, including one of the co-favorites and a red-hot program with plenty of postseason experience.
Georgia Tech (+500)
You could honestly flip a coin between UCLA and Georgia Tech. They've been the top two teams all season and are the most complete teams top to bottom. But there are a couple of reasons I give Georgia Tech the edge here. For one, they have played a much harder schedule, going through an ACC slate that has included second-ranked North Carolina and 11th-ranked FSU, and the Yellow Jackets have wins over SEC powers Auburn and Georgia. The Yellow Jackets are the first ACC team to win both the regular season and tournament titles since 2013, and they beat UNC on Sunday to do so.
Another reason is the offense, which is the best in the country. Georgia State paces the nation in batting average (.358), runs (616), slugging percentage (.636), on-base percentage (.469) and ranks fourth in home runs (125). Ryan Zuckerman has 23 of those homers, while Vahn Lackey is hitting .410.
On the pitching side, the Yellow Jackets might not have the same arms that the SEC teams do, but they led the ACC in team ERA (4.36) in conference play this season. The trio of Tate McKee, Jackson Blakely and Carson Ballard has pitched extremely well at the end of the year. I also like Georgia Tech's draw in not only the regional round, but in the Supers as well, matching up against Kansas or Arkansas out of the Lawrence regional.
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Florida (+1800)
I was able to grab this before the weekend at 35-1 and while that number is long gone, 18-1 is still good value for one of the hottest teams in the country. No, the Gators didn't win the SEC title and lost in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament to Georgia after having a 6-0 lead, but Florida's 16 wins over Quad One teams are tied for the most in the nation, and its 8-3 record over top-10 teams is best in the country. Florida took two of three from Georgia as the only team to not allow the Bulldogs to homer, swept both Florida State and Miami, swept Arkansas and took two of three from Oklahoma.
The one-two punch on the mound of SEC Pitcher of the Year Aidan King and Liam Peterson, combined with one of the top bullpens in the country, will give Florida a shot to win it all. Add in an offense that is peaking at the right time (28 runs in three games in the SEC tournament) with Blake Cyr and Brandan Lawson leading the way and Florida could be a sneak play over the next three weeks.
Longshot: Oregon (+6000)
It's hard to call a regional host a "longshot," but the Ducks are still priced at 60-1 in the futures market, which represents tremendous betting value. It's the longest price of any of the 16 host teams, and it's even longer than some No. 2 seeds. While the national media will make jokes over the Pac-12 reunion in Eugene this weekend as the Ducks host Oregon State and Washington State (as well as Yale), I'm looking at it as a regional I don't think they will have a problem with. The Ducks split with the Beavers earlier this year, but Oregon has turned it up a notch lately. The Ducks finished the season 16-7 with three of the losses coming to top-ranked UCLA, including a walk-off loss in the Big Ten title game. It also includes a win over UCLA, taking two of three from USC and three of four from Nebraska.
The Ducks' offense led the Big Ten with 102 HRs, was second in slugging, and fourth in OPS. If they get out of the Pac-12 reunion, they are looking at a Super Regional matchup with Texas (or UCSB), both of which they can beat. Oregon is not the best team in the country, but it also should not be getting +6000 as a regional host either. There's a path to Omaha and if you are sitting with a 60-1 ticket with eight teams left, you are a happy person.
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College baseball regional best bets
- West Virginia (-105)
- Coastal Carolina (+210)
- Auburn/Georgia/Florida parlay (+162)
There's still a lot of time and games between now and the College World Series, with regional matchups getting underway this weekend. As such, here are my picks for a few of the different regionals taking place, including a three-leg parlay consisting of SEC teams.
West Virginia (-105) to win Morgantown Regional
I have been a big fan of this Mountaineers team all season and was excited to see them get the final host spot. What I didn't expect was for the regional to line up the way it did. RPI and some metrics might have Wake Forest as one of the better No. 2 seeds, but I think they are average at best. Kentucky as a No. 3 seed sounds scary until you see that the Wildcats lost eight of their last nine SEC series and were bounced by Vanderbilt in the first SEC Tournament game. They were among the last teams in the field, so that doesn't scare me either.
As for West Virginia, when you have a 1-2 punch of Maxx Yehl and Chansen Cole on the mound, you are a big regional favorite. At -105, I am jumping in. Yehl and Cole helped West Virginia sweep Big 12 champion Kansas just two weeks ago and will put the Mountaineers into the Regional Championship game on Sunday.
Coastal Carolina (+210) to win Tallahassee Regional
When I am waiting for brackets, the one team I do not want to see in my regional is Coastal Carolina. The Chanticleers are always one of the top mid-majors in the country and the king of the Giant Killers for this tournament format. They shocked the world, winning it all in 2016 and knocked out Auburn in the Super Regionals last year before losing to LSU in the College World Series Finals. This is no ordinary mid-major. They were a top-10 team earlier this season, on track to host a regional and potentially get a top-eight national seed. A late-season slide, including two losses in three games in the Sun Belt tournament, knocked them down to the No. 2 line. They've dealt with a bunch of injuries, but ace Can Flukey is back in the rotation.
As for the hosts, it's been a very familiar pattern in Tallahassee. The Seminoles have ace Wes Mendes, who was first-team All-ACC and one of the best arms in the country. However, after that, it's a toss-up. Trey Beard is solid and has helped FSU get a regional host spot, but he has been inconsistent. The same can be said of Bryson Moore. While the Seminoles have the talent to make a deep run to Omaha, they also got swept by Florida, lost to both Auburn and Nebraska out of conference, were swept by Georgia Tech and Stanford, and were one-and-done in the ACC Tournament, blowing a lead to Pittsburgh.
At the end of the day, I am getting more than 2-to-1 on a team that lost in the CWS Finals last year to upset a team that got swept by Stanford.
Auburn (-265)/Georgia (-370)/Florida (-200) three-leg parlay (+162)
Let's call this our SEC favorites parlay. I do not see any of these three teams having a hard time getting out of their respective regionals. Florida's toughest opponent will be a Miami team it swept this year and have won 10 of the last 13 against. While I think Boston College is an underrated team, the Golden Eagles aren't at Georgia's level. And Auburn might've gotten the easiest regional of the 16 with a middling Big 12 team in UCF and an NC State team that many have argued shouldn't have made the tournament.
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David Bearman's Regional Winners
- 1 UCLA
- 16 West Virginia
- 8 Florida
- 9 S Miss (but watch for Jacksonville State)
- 5 North Carolina
- USC
- 13 Nebraska
- 4 Auburn
- 2 Georgia Tech
- Arkansas
- Coastal Carolina
- 7 Alabama
- 6 Texas
- 11 Oregon
- 14 Miss State (but watch for Louisiana)
- 3 Georgia
