What Price Title? Last Three College Baseball Champs - All From SEC - Struggled The Next Year

So, what would you trade for a college baseball national championship?

Mississippi State's baseball team won the school's first national title in any sport in 2021 after going 50-18 and 20-10 in the Southeastern Conference. But then it immediately looked like the Bulldogs had to pay off the devil as they fell to 26-30 and 9-21 in 2022 and did not qualify for the 12-team SEC Tournament or the 64-team NCAA Tournament.

Ole Miss won its first national championship in baseball in 2022 after a 42-23 season and 14-16 in conference. In 2023, the Rebels too had a hellish season, cratering to 25-29 and 6-24 for last in the SEC. This tied their second-worst league winning percentage record exactly from 1997 at .200, and they failed to reach the SEC Tournament or NCAA Tournament.

LSU won its seventh national crown in 2023 at 54-17 and 19-10. This year, the Tigers had to rally late to finish the regular season at 36-20 and 13-17 in the league after a 22-14 and 3-11 start. Their ascent continued Tuesday as No. 11 seed LSU defeated Georgia, 9-1, in the opener of the SEC Tournament at the Hoover Met in Hoover, Alabama. Then LSU destroyed No. 3 seed and regular season co-champ Kentucky, 11-0, in eight innings (10-run rule) Wednesday morning, becoming the first team in SEC Tournament history to hit two grand slams in the same game, courtesy of Tommy White and Jared Jones.

The Tigers (38-20) are now a lock to receive an NCAA Tournament bid on Monday during the NCAA Tournament Selection Show (Noon, ESPN2). Apparently, they have solved the post-title jinx.

LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson gets the Powerade shower after the Tigers defeated Florida, 18-4, on June 26 at the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, to take the best-of-three title series, two games to one. (Getty Images)

The team LSU beat in the best-of-three national championship series, two games to one, at the College World Series last year was SEC brother Florida, which finished 54-17 and 20-10 for an SEC regular season co-championship with Arkansas. But the Gators also fell on hard times this season, finishing 28-27 and 13-17 in the regular season. No. 9 seed Florida's season ended Tuesday at the SEC Tournament with a 6-3 loss to No. 8 seed Vanderbilt (36-20, 13-17). The Commodores play No. 1 seed and SEC regular season co-champion Tennessee (46-10, 22-8) at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday on the SEC Network.    

Mississippi State's apparent deal with the devil continued in 2023 as it finished 27-26 and 9-21 again, before finally "overcoming" that national title to finish this regular season at 36-19 and 17-13.  The No. 5 seed Bulldogs beat No. 12 seed Ole Miss, 2-1, in the late game at the SEC Tournament Tuesday on a walk-off, two-out, two-run home run by Connor Hujsak that ended Ole Miss' season. 

Mississippi State And Ole Miss Each Suffered For Two Years After Title

Like Mississippi State, Ole Miss was unable to recapture its CWS glory through two seasons as it finished this past regular season at 27-29 and 11-19 in the SEC.

How does this happen? Is the SEC just that tough? And is it a coincidence that the NCAA Transfer Portal and Name, Image & Likeness just happened to start only weeks after this SEC trilogy began after State's national championship in the summer of 2021?

"I think it's the only sport, the only league where this would rear its head like that," LSU coach Jay Johnson said before the SEC Tournament. "The nature of baseball's different, and baseball in the SEC is different. It's the best, most complete conference in any sport in the entire country in terms of the best players are here right now."

The SEC has a chance to put a league record 11 teams into the NCAA Tournament.

"All the SEC programs are pouring a lot of resources into baseball," Johnson said. "So, to win a national championship nowadays, you have to have future Major League players. And you have to have old players who really know what they're doing. You have to have that in place."

History: LSU 1st To Produce 1st 2 Picks In MLB Draft 

LSU tied the SEC record for most players drafted from one program in 2023 with 13 and became the first school in history to produce the first two picks of an MLB Draft with pitcher Paul Skenes going to the Pittsburgh Pirates and outfielder Dylan Crews to Washington.

Pittsburgh Pirates rookie pitcher Paul Skenes of LSU stands with girlfriend, former LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne, after making his Major League Baseball debut at PNC Park in Pittsburgh on May 11 against the Chicago Cubs. (USA TODAY Sports)

Then you have to rebuild.

"You're going to lose a lot of guys," Johnson said. "So, you're going to be playing almost with a new team. It would be a super exception if a team won a national title in baseball with freshmen and sophomores."

Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco had the exact recipe Johnson discussed in 2022 - an older team with seven players selected in the 2022 MLB Draft. Then he lost his top returning pitcher from 2022 for 2023 in Hunter Elliott, who was 5-3 with a 2.70 earned run average in 2022 and key to the CWS run. Elliott made just two appearances in ’23 and had to have Tommy John elbow surgery - ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction. Relievers Josh Mallitz and Riley Maddox also had elbow injuries in 2023 after strong seasons in 2022.

Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco led the Rebels to their first national championship in baseball in the 2022 season. (Getty Images)

Pitching Injuries Took Their Toll

"The most common factors were that all three were old teams when they won," Bianco told OutKick on Monday. "Then a lot of new faces and big injuries on the mound."

Mississippi State starter Landon Sims was 5-0 with a 1.44 ERA when the Bulldogs won the 2021 national title. He also had to have Tommy John surgery in 2022 after making only three appearances.

Mississippi State players give coach Chris Lemonis the Powerade shower after the Bulldogs defeated Vanderbilt for the College World Series title on June, 30, 2021, at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Getty Images)

After the second 9-21 SEC season and a record that hovered around .500, Mississippi State coach Chris Lemonis entered the 2024 season on the hot seat - just three years removed from winning it all.

He exited that with a late-season run that has included 10 wins in his last 14 games.

"I think Chris Lemonis has done his best job yet, and he needed to," writer Eric Sorenson of D1 Baseball said recently on the SportsTalk Mississippi show. "Early in the year, people were clamoring for him to be gone I think this is Chris Lemonis’ chance to prove that the national championship wasn’t a fluke, and the last two years were flukes."

Bianco, who is the dean of SEC coaches after starting at Ole Miss in 2001, may need to do the same thing next season. Of course, Bianco was about to get fired before his late run in 2022 for the national championship. That's just the SEC.

SEC Baseball Just Keeps Getting Better Overall

"The conference continues to be better with more parity each year," he said.

"The portal is the thing in the SEC," Johnson said of the most popular landing spot for sun and fun. "Everybody can be old because of the portal. Just the maturity, age and experience. I was watching a team on TV that we have not played, and I was like, ‘Man, those guys look like they’re 35-year-old, 12-year Major League players.' It's a credit to the modern-day SEC and a byproduct of the transfer portal. It's harder to win every year in the SEC. We wouldn't have had the trouble we've had in any other league."

Tennessee, on the other hand, has been winning every year since the portal and NIL started in 2021 under coach Tony Vitello. The Vols have the SEC's best record since 2021 with no dips below .500 at 50-18 and 20-10 in 2021, 58-9 and an SEC regular season title at 25-5 in 2022, 44-42 and 16-14 in 2023 and 46-10 and 22-8 this season with an SEC regular season title.

But the Vols have never won a national championship through six trips to the College World Series, including in 2021 and '23. Maybe Vitello should consider a deal with the devil like above - a drop in consistency for a year or two after that elusive national championship. The latter lasts longer.

"They'll be legends forever," Lemonis said after beating Vanderbilt for the national title in 2021. "Probably never buy a beer again."