Will Mississippi State baseball repeat as College World Series champs?

Will Chris Lemonis and the Mississippi State baseball team be able to defend their national title and win the College World Series in 2022?

The Mississippi State Bulldogs are sitting at the top of the college baseball world right now after finally breaking through and winning the College World Series in 2021. Mississippi State managed to reach the College World Series Finals and successfully eliminated the Vanderbilt Commodores. But that was last season. Going into this season, the Bulldogs are looking to win it all again.

Can they do that?

While there are some questions that need to be answered about Mississippi State’s starting rotation, the Bulldogs are still talented, have a number of really good arms in their bullpen, and have some impressive power in their lineup. Mississippi State’s coaching staff might be the best in the country and should be able to steer this team around any obstacle it faces.

The biggest hurdle that Mississippi State will need to clear as it looks to repeat as College World Series champ is the parity that exists in college baseball.

This season, there are a number of other teams that are roughly as talented as the Bulldogs. There are a number of other teams with rosters assembled and ready to win a championship. Teams like Texas, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas will all be ready to make a run at the CWS.

In theory, it doesn’t even need to be a team as good as those three to upend the Bulldogs this year. All it takes is one team that is just good enough and gets right on a hot streak at the perfect moment.

Mississippi State baseball fans who remember what Gary Henderson and the Bulldogs accomplished in 2018 will certainly be familiar with that concept.

Mississippi State baseball: Can Bulldogs repeat as national champs, win 2022 College World Series?

Historically, this isn’t something that is all that common. Not in this sport, at least.

Teams just typically don’t repeat as champions in college baseball. It doesn’t happen all that often. More or less, it happens about once within a decade. The first time any team ever successfully won consecutive College World Series championships was in 1949 and 1950, when Texas won it all.

The second time such an instance happened is arguably most impressive example of a team winning championships in consecutive seasons. Southern California went back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back, winning every College World Series from 1970 to 1974.

Fast forward a few seasons and the Stanford Cardinal won it all in 1987 and 1988. In the late 1990’s, Skip Bertman’s LSU Tigers went back-to-back in 1996 and 1997. The Oregon State Beavers won two championships in 2007 and 2008. Most recently, the South Carolina Gamecocks won consecutive championships in 2010 and 2011.

While Mississippi State head coach Chris Lemonis seems to have things rolling in Starkville, it’s probably unfair to expect him to go out and win another championship in 2022. Winning one national title is hard enough. Coming in to a new season and defending that title might just be even tougher.

Mississippi State might look like a true title contender, and the Bulldogs should be this season, but the rarity of winning back-to-back makes this seem unlikely.

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