LSU-Texas would make a heck of a BCS title game.
The programs have combined for three national championships this decade. They are among a small group of programs that dominate the sport year in and year out.
LSU-Texas in the College World Series makes for a heck of a party.
The programs have combined for 11 national championships. They are among a small group of programs that dominate the sport year in and year out.
The difference in the two sports? Bowl games are played at neutral sites, frequently in an NFL stadium. Really, only one of those 32 bowl games matters. The CWS is played in the sport's ancestral home -- Omaha's Rosenblatt Stadium.
Every game matters.
From the baseball tent city that springs up on 13th St. to Pauli's (your official CWS adult beverage headquarters), perhaps no other U.S. city turns out so well for one event for so long. At least an event with all its innocence intact.
The CWS is the last championship event on the NCAA calendar.
"If it's about drama," Texas coach Augie Garrido said. "We've got that."
Slightly more than two months from now the football big boys will begin a different kind of drama. One filled with money and, at times, corruption.
On the brink of signing a monster bonus, baseball's top draft choice Stephen Strasburg paused in the press box one day this month to watch two CWS teams warm up. The look on his face couldn't deny the emotion. Jealousy. No matter how much money he makes or games he wins, Strasburg was looking at an event he will never participate in.
College baseball still has Cinderellas. Since 2003, Rice, Oregon State (twice) and Fresno State have won the College World Series. Two schools in this year's CWS (Virginia and Southern Miss) were making their first appearance.
Big budgets don't necessarily equal success in baseball. Rice, one of the smallest schools in Division I-A, is a baseball powerhouse. In college, success is more a product of climate and roster management. There are no full scholarships.
There were also no polls, nor computers to anoint the Horns or the Tigers. They had to take a long, arduous path to get to this point. A double-elimination regional, followed by a best-of-3 super regional, followed by double-elimination CWS bracket play to get to this point, a best-of-3 championship series.
"It's not the most difficult sport in the world," Garrido joked. "There's gun fighting, or being a gladiator. You can only lose in those sports once."
There is a path of a different kind when it comes to Omaha. Ask yourself how many LSU fans traveled to South Florida to watch the Gators and Sooners play for the BCS title? Not many.
College baseball has a kinship. LSU has won five baseball championships from 1991-2000 at Rosenblatt. Its presence here is so expected that Tigers fans are figured into the economic impact even when LSU doesn't make the CWS.
Garrido does not have a counterpart among the control freaks in football. Not when you see him chatting with reporters in the dugout or allowing his players to visit the Omaha zoo without him.
"I'd see too many of my relatives," Garrido said.
The baseball Tigers have been more dominant than their football counterparts. This year's team is on a roll, having won 13 in a row, outscoring three CWS opponents 32-11.
Does that make top-seeded Texas an ... underdog in the best-of-3 championship series that begins Monday night? Consider that Texas can never be a team of destiny in football. Depending on Ohio State's tax return, Texas has either the No. 1 or No. 2 richest athletic department in the country. Football is the flagship. There is news when Mack Brown doesn't win 11.
The smaller baseball budget means Garrido still must parcel out 11.7 scholarships wisely. This means Garrido has to use his small-ball approach to squeeze runs out of a team that has been called the worst No. 1 seed in recent CWS memory. That means getting 13 innings of scoreless relief from Austin Wood in the regional against Boston College. That means an eight-run ninth inning to beat Army, capped by a walk-off grand slam.
A theme developed. Texas used a walk-off walk to beat Southern Miss in the CWS opener. There were 10 unanswered runs against Arizona State after trailing 6-0 against ace Mike Leake (16-1 at the time).
Down 3-2 to the Sun Devils on Friday, the Longhorns shocked the world -- yes, it's still possible for Texas to do that -- with two homers in a five-pitch span to win 4-3. The Sun Devils were stunned. The 'Horns were hollerin'.
"So far, yeah, we've played like a team of destiny," said center fielder Connor Rowe, who blasted the game winner.
Garrido, the sport's Zen master, has won five championships, two with Texas since 2002. Sometimes he coaches on feel, but boy does he coach. Always. Garrido makes micro managers seem laissez faire.
But Rowe was surprised when he got the hit sign against Arizona State's junk ball-throwing Mitchell Lambson.
First-pitch homer. Texas wins. See you at the party beginning Monday night.
