Where Vanderbilt baseball ranks in USA TODAY Top 25 preseason poll – The Tennessean

Vanderbilt baseball enters the 2026 season ranked No. 18 in the USA TODAY Sports Top 25 preseason college baseball poll, which was released Feb. 3. 
Vandy is the lowest of nine SEC teams ranked in the top 20, with No. 1 LSU and No. 3 Texas at the top.  
Coach Tim Corbin and the Commodores exceeded expectations in 2025 with a 43-18 overall record and 19-11 mark in the SEC. But NCAA postseason losses to Louisville and Wright State kept Vanderbilt from playing for a region final and extended the program’s streak to four seasons without a College World Series appearance.
Vanderbilt’s top returning pitchers are junior Connor Fennell, a NCBWA Third Team All-American last season, and Austin Nye, a sophomore and Perfect Game First Team Freshman All-American. Key returning positional players include catcher Colin Barczi, infielder Brodie Johnston and utilitymen Braden Holcomb and Rustan Rigdon.
Records in parentheses are from the 2025 season.
1. LSU (53-15)
2. UCLA (48-18)
3. Texas (44-14) 
4. Georgia Tech (41-19) 
5. Arkansas (50-15) 
6. Mississippi State (36-23) 
7. Coastal Carolina (56-13) 
8. North Carolina (46-15) 
9. Auburn (41-20) 
10. TCU (39-20) 
11. Louisville (42-24) 
12. Oregon State (48-16-1) 
13. Georgia (43-17) 
14. Florida State (42-16) 
15. Tennessee (46-19) 
16. Florida (39-22) 
17. Clemson (45-18) 
18. Vanderbilt (43-18) 
19. North Carolina State (35-21)
20. Southern Mississippi (47-16)
21. Miami (Fla.) (35-27)
22. Virginia (32-18)
23. Oregon (42-16)
24. Arizona (44-21) 
25. Wake Forest (39-22) 
Dropped Out: No. 11 Murray State (44-17); No. 17 West Virginia (44-16); No. 18 Mississippi (43-21); No. 21 Duke (41-21); No. 22 Texas-San Antonio (47-15); No. 23 UC Irvine (43-17). 
Others Receiving Votes: Kentucky (31-26) 92; Mississippi (43-21) 59; West Virginia (44-16) 42; Texas A&M (30-26) 38; Oklahoma (38-22) 28; East Carolina (35-27) 25; Dallas Baptist (41-18) 19; UC Irvine (43-17) 13; Kansas (43-17) 11; Arizona State (36-24) 7; Murray State (44-17) 7; Alabama (41-18) 6; Duke (41-21) 6; Southern California (37-23) 6; UC Santa Barbara (36-18) 6; Oklahoma State (30-25); Troy (39-21) 5; Texas-San Antonio (47-15) 4; Northeastern (49-11) 2; Bethune-Cookman (37-23) 1; Cal State Fullerton (29-27) 1; Connecticut (38-21) 1; Nebraska (33-29) 1.
Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at [email protected] and on the X platform,@tpalmateer83.
He also contributes to The Tennessean’s high school sports newsletter, The Bootleg.Subscribe to The Bootleg here.

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