Caraway's grand slam helps Oregon State beat Florida State 14-10, advance to CWS
The Beavers (47-14-1) advance to the College World Series for the eighth time in program history and the first since 2018, when Oregon State won the most recent of its CWS titles.
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Krieg walked, Reeder was hit by a pitch and McEntire drew an eight-pitch walk to set up Caraway's slam and Turley's shot made it 13-3.
Zach Kmatz (2-0) gave up two runs over 2 2/3 relief innings.
Max Williams hit a two-run homer in the top of the first but Oregon State responded in the bottom. Reeder hit a three-run home run off starter Wes Mendes (7-3) before McEntire added a solo shot to that gave the Beavers a 7-2 lead.
Chase Williams hit a solo shot in the second for No. 9 seed Florida State (42-16). Lodise had an RBI in the fourth and, after Tyce Peterson responded with a solo homer for OSU, Jaxson West and Gage Harrelson each drove in a run in the fifth. Myles Bailey hit a two-run home run in the six to make it 14-8.
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Brody DeLamielleure and Harrelson drove in a run apiece to cap the scoring in the ninth.
The Seminoles beat Oregon State 3-1 on Saturday to avoid elimination after the Beavers rallied to win the opener 5-4 in 10 innings.
Florida State played in its record 19th super regional and its 61 postseason appearances and 211 postseason wins are second in NCAA history, behind Texas with 259 wins in 64 appearances.
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USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Projecting LSU baseball's starting pitching rotation for the 2026 season
After leading LSU baseball to a College World Series title, star pitchers Kade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson are off to the professional ranks. The duo was arguably the top pitching tandem in the country. Anderson threw 119 innings with a 3.18 ERA. He led college baseball with 180 strikeouts and capped his LSU career with a complete game shutout vs. Coastal Carolina in the College World Series final. Eyanson was equally impressive. He tossed 108 innings to the tune of a 3.00 ERA. He struck out 152 and walked 136. Anderson and Eyanson leave big shoes to fill. That's 227 quality innings out the door. But LSU has the talent to reload. The 2026 season is a long way away, but we'll take a look at what LSU's 2026 rotation is expected to look like. LSU will once again expect to compete for a CWS title with a top-notch rotation. The Ace: Casan Evans Evans was a true freshman in 2025 and didn't waste time emerging as one of LSU's top relievers. Evans' stuff was electric, earning him high leverage innings early in the year. Evans was so good that Jay Johnson decided to give him a chance as a starter after Chase Shores began to struggle as LSU's Sunday arm. Evans impressed, but with LSU needing help in the bullpen, Evans returned to his relief role in the postseason. With LSU's season on the line, Evans was dynamite out of the pen in Game 7 of the Baton Rouge Regional. He struck out nine straight batters at one point in that game. Evans finished 2025 with a 2.05 ERA in 52.2 innings. He averaged 12.1 strikeouts per nine innings, which put him among the nation's elite arms. Evans has the stuff to be an SEC ace, and if his 2025 NCAA Tournament was a preview of things to come, LSU is in a good spot. Evans is the heavy favorite to win LSU's Friday night pitching job in 2026. Saturday: Cooper Moore With LSU losing the experienced arms of Anderson and Eyanson, the Tigers took a look in the transfer portal. Jay Johnson secured a starter with Power Four experience in Cooper Moore. Moore, a right-hander, comes to LSU after spending two years at Kansas. Moore was one of the best available arms in the portal, and LSU had to battle programs like Tennessee to earn his services. Moore only walked 1.9 batters per nine innings. That ranked No. 3 among all Big 12 starting pitchers. He only issued 19 walks all year. Moore finished 2025 with a 3.96 ERA in 88.2 innings pitched. Expect Moore to take another step forward as he now gets to work with LSU resources and Nate Yeskie, one of the best pitching coaches in the country. Transfers pitchers have seen their draft stock skyrocket after transferring to LSU in recent years. Moore is looking to get the same boost in Baton Rouge. Sunday: Zac Cowan Zac Cowan transferred to LSU ahead of the 2025 season after excelling as a starting pitcher at Wofford. Cowan assumed a bullpen role with LSU and emerged as one of the top relievers in the SEC. Cowan announced his plans to return to Baton Rouge for another season, but his exact role is unclear. It wouldn't be a surprise to see Cowan start on Saturday, start on Sunday, or continue in the closer role. But right now, Cowan is the third-best arm on LSU, and he's capable of taking on a starter workload. We saw him do it at Wofford, and we saw him do it in the College World Series, where he pitched 5.1 fantastic innings vs. Arkansas. If that's the version of Cowan LSU will get in 2026, it's hard to justify keeping the right-hander in the bullpen. Cowan finished 2025 with a 2.94 ERA in 52 innings. He struck out 60 and walked 12.
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
How much would college football teams sell for? Texas leads our Power 4 valuation rankings
Editor's note: This article is part of our Rankings & Tiers series, an evaluation across sport about the key players, front offices, teams, franchises and much more. How much would it take to buy your favorite college football program? As much as college football has drifted toward professionalization, one major difference remains: NCAA teams are not for sale. Not yet, at least. But private equity explorations by schools like Florida State and Boise State led The Athletic to consider a future where the Seminoles and Broncos could be bought and sold, just like the Boston Celtics or Tampa Bay Rays. Advertisement We approached the hypothetical question with a methodology that was part art, part science. We used real-life pro transactions to gauge purchase prices relative to a team's revenue over the past three available years of data. NFL and NBA sales guided our ratios in the SEC and Big Ten, while the MLB and NHL were our rough benchmarks in the ACC and Big 12. For each school in a Power 4 conference (plus Notre Dame), we factored in everything from prestige and championships to facility renovations, population trends and realignment scenarios. That means treating Notre Dame more like the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston College more like the Kansas City Royals. Because athletic departments isolate and report football revenue differently, our numbers are squishy. Actual transactions are much more complicated than what we did with a spreadsheet or what you see on 'Shark Tank.' But the process is imperfect in the real world, too. What a team sells for (our objective with this story) is not the same as a team's actual value (a story for another day). Buyers routinely pay a premium because there are only so many opportunities to own a sports team. That sentiment would be even stronger in college football, where pre-established allegiances and irrational decisions already run deeper. Though Texas A&M just missed our $1 billion club, it's easy to envision a few Aggies boosters artificially boosting the price to brag about spending 10 figures on their team. Or some Michigan fan paying extra to make sure the Wolverines out-priced Ohio State. Do not take our numbers to the bank, literally or metaphorically. Instead, consider this a fun attempt at blending back-of-the-envelope math with common sense to price college programs like their professional peers — an exercise that's theoretical for now … but might not be much longer. Advertisement Three-year average football revenue: $183 million The Longhorns routinely lead the country in revenue and were the only team to top $200 million in the most recent financial reports. No program came within $25 million of Texas in either of the past two years. The Longhorns haven't won a national title since 2005 but made the College Football Playoff semifinals each of the past two seasons and are among this preseason's top championship contenders. Add in the SEC brand, and Texas looks like the safest investment. Our price tag makes the Longhorns comparable to the 2018 sale of the Carolina Panthers (almost $2.3 billion). Average football revenue: $147 million Though the Bulldogs are second in average revenue and an obvious heavyweight with only five losing seasons in the past 50 years, we still paused at the price and ranking our numbers suggested. Should we really value Georgia higher than the next three teams bunched together on our list? We ultimately justified this placement with demographics. Georgia's population has doubled since 1980, and only three states added more residents from 2020-24, according to the U.S. Census. That overall trend, plus the state's explosion into a top-four football talent producer and Georgia unlocking its potential as a perennial national power under Kirby Smart, gave the Bulldogs the edge as a long-term play. Average football revenue: $116 million Our initial numbers would have put the Buckeyes sixth at $1.5 billion, but that's where the art part of this exercise enters the mix. Ohio State's income was weighed down by a 2023 season with only six home games, and it takes time for a spike from last season's national championship run to show up on the balance sheet. The Buckeyes are also the sport's most recession-proof program with only one losing season in the past 35 years. Advertisement Those factors led us to bump Ohio State here. Average football revenue: $143 million The income doesn't reflect a jump in TV revenue thanks to the contract extension the Irish landed with NBC in 2023; it's large enough to put Notre Dame's paydays within striking distance of SEC/Big Ten programs. Last year's Playoff run helps, too, not that we need to justify the lofty price tag for a team known for putting flakes of real gold on its helmets. Average football revenue: $141 million Michigan boasts the largest stadium and, according to our previous analysis, the largest fan base, too. So why are the Wolverines behind the rival Buckeyes? Their on-field product has been much more inconsistent (five unranked seasons since 2013), and they compete with Michigan State for the share of a smaller state with a weaker population growth. Michigan feels like a slightly riskier bet than Ohio State. Average football revenue: $133 million Alabama was the final team to earn our top revenue multiplier — 13x reported revenue — thanks to the tradition and prestige that predated Nick Saban and will continue to survive after him. Those factors mitigate the risks if the program regresses under Kalen DeBoer (or any of his successors, as we consider the long-term view). Our price puts the Crimson Tide on par with the 2024 sale of the Baltimore Orioles ($1.725 billion) or the expected price tag for the Rays ($1.7 billion). Average football revenue: $135 million Though Oklahoma has spent decades as the most stable program outside of Ohio State, its dominance came in the Big Eight/12, not the SEC. Instead of being one of two unquestioned juggernauts, the Sooners are in danger of being lost in the shuffle (like they were last year). For those reasons, we slotted Oklahoma behind Alabama despite its slightly higher revenue. Advertisement Average football revenue: $71.3 million We took the biggest liberty here. Revenue figures alone would put the Trojans' value in the Nebraska-Wisconsin range ($800 million to $900 million). But those numbers don't reflect the fact that they're adding millions of dollars annually by shedding Pac-12 payouts and receiving full shares from the Big Ten. Add in brand power — where the Trojans are more like Alabama or Oklahoma historically — plus the value of Los Angeles, and this seemed like a reasonable landing spot. Average football revenue: $124.9 million Texas, Notre Dame and Michigan are the only programs that reported more football revenue than Tennessee in the last fiscal year. The Volunteers, however, were outside the top 12 in some pre-pandemic accounting and have a recent history that we can politely call 'volatile.' This price puts them slightly behind the 2023 valuation of the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning. Average football revenue: $102.9 million Although we'd value the Tigers somewhere below the Texas-Alabama tier but above the Tennessees and Oklahomas, their average football revenue was only 13th nationally. LSU's overall athletic department revenue was in the 8-10 range, which gave us more confidence in our ranking and price. Average football revenue: $109.5 million Penn State is working on upgrading Beaver Stadium with better amenities and a new club area. The renovation will cost up to $700 million but will pay off with increased revenue streams in our scenario. The Nittany Lions will be an interesting school to revisit in five years if they break through this season and live up to their national championship potential after last season's semifinal run. Average football revenue: $98.5 million Advertisement The Gators are also pursuing a major stadium upgrade that would significantly change the revenue picture; in January, the chairperson of the university's board of trustees publicly floated a $1 billion price tag for the project. Florida's downside remains its on-field product. USC is the only other program in our top 12 that has never made the College Football Playoff, and the Gators have suffered through four consecutive seasons without finishing ranked. Average football revenue: $118.2 million Like Florida, the Tigers have been in an on-field funk. The national championship trophy Auburn won with Cam Newton is almost old enough to get its driver's license. We slotted the Tigers behind the Gators because Florida remains the flagship school of a large, still-growing state. Auburn is No. 2 in Alabama, a state with a quarter of the residents (5.2 million). Average football revenue: $90.0 million In prestige and championship potential, the Ducks — the top team on this list that has never won a national title — are probably undervalued here. Nike has made them a national brand, and Dan Lanning has re-established them as a title contender. Though Oregon proved it belongs in the Big Ten by winning the conference championship in Year 1, the Ducks get a half-share payout from the league until the 2030 fiscal year. That reality kept them from being the 14th member of our $1 billion club. Average football revenue: $97.3 million The Aggies have the rabid fan base and demographic upside to be higher. Money has also never been an issue at a program that paid Jimbo Fisher the biggest buyout in college football history (about $77 million). But we're also considering wins and losses because of the money victories bring. Texas A&M is arguably the nation's biggest underachiever with only four top-five finishes and one national title (1939) since the Associated Press poll began in 1936 and zero conference titles since 1998. Advertisement Average football revenue: $107.8 million Like Oregon, the Huskies have Big Ten status but no full Big Ten payday until 2030, and two coaches have led the team to the CFP. Both Washington and Seattle have swelling populations, which helps the sale price. But the location in Seattle cuts the other way, too, as the Huskies share a town with the Seahawks, Mariners and Kraken, plus the MLS' Sounders FC. The Huskies' market faces a higher risk of overcrowding than most peers. Average football revenue: $116.3 million Although the Cornhuskers usually rank in the top 10 in football revenue, they haven't finished ranked since 2012 or even beaten a ranked team since 2016, and they're almost 30 years removed from their last national championship. They also have failed to stand out in the Big Ten. Those factors make Nebraska a shakier investment; the program looks more like a depreciating asset than a team on the rise. The cost puts Nebraska between the sales prices of the NHL's Ottawa Senators ($950 million in 2023) and Pittsburgh Penguins ($900 million in 2021). Average football revenue: $86.7 million The Seminoles' financial future looks better after they settled their dueling lawsuits with the ACC. We can expect Florida State's revenue to jump by eight figures under the conference's new uneven distribution model, which tilts TV payouts toward the programs that attract the most viewers. The settlement agreement also set a clear, manageable exit fee for FSU to join the SEC, Big Ten or theoretical super league. If the Seminoles can stabilize themselves on the field, they should be in position to benefit in conference realignment or other changes to the landscape. Average football revenue: $100.1 million Advertisement The Badgers are the final $100 million-a-year program on our list. The program has stalled (32-26 over the last five seasons) and lacks the tradition of Nebraska or the upside of Washington and Florida State. But even though the floor looks lower than it did a decade ago, it's high enough for Wisconsin — the only program above Division III in the 20th most popular state — to belong in our top 20 with a big gap to the next tier. Average football revenue: $88.6 million Average football revenue: $88.5 million The Hawkeyes and Spartans are virtually identical in revenue and on-field results (Iowa is 123-69 since 2010, while Michigan State is 119-69). We'd classify their standings in the Big Ten and the sport as a whole as about the same, too, even as we game out future realignment scenarios. This price point is on par with average MLS team valuations by Forbes and Sportico. Average football revenue: $78.2 million The Tigers were one of the trickiest to place. They, like Florida State, are positioned to capitalize with the ACC's new payout structure and have a viable escape hatch to the SEC or Big Ten if/when the next realignment wave hits around 2030. Two national championships in the past decade plus a likely preseason top-five roster are also great selling points. But Clemson averaged only 8.2 wins between its 1981 title and Dabo Swinney's first ring (2016). That makes the Tigers' footing feel a little shakier without a gargantuan student body or nearby population to fall back on if the program regresses to its historic mean. Average football revenue: $80.8 million Average football revenue: $75.5 million Average football revenue: $73.8 million Advertisement Miami was also interesting to place beyond the future of its conference, the ACC. The U brings the appeal of south Florida and a marquee name. On the other hand, the program lacks a home stadium, and its recent returns on investment would politely be described as inconsistent. Miami hasn't finished in the top 10 or won a conference title since 2003, its final year in the Big East. We decided to treat Miami the same as middle-of-the-pack SEC programs Arkansas and Ole Miss. Average football revenue: $63.6 million Average football revenue: $70.3 million Average football revenue: $80.2 million Average football revenue: $77.0 million Average football revenue: $74.7 million If UNC seems high, it's because it has more financial upside (beyond whatever happens during Bill Belichick's tenure) than other teams in this ballpark. North Carolina is already the ninth-largest state and growing more than all but Texas and Florida. That's a good sign for the potential growth of a fan base. Assuming academics matter in future college football iterations — probable but not a given — the leaders of Big Ten and SEC schools will both want to be associated with one of the nation's top public schools. South Carolina, Minnesota and Utah are being capped by lower ceilings. TCU's location in Fort Worth (a talent-rich, populous area) was an advantage over many of its Big 12 peers. These prices are in line with Sportico's valuations of the MLS' Chicago Fire FC, FC Dallas, Orlando City SC, the New England Revolution and Real Salt Lake. Average football revenue: $65.0 million Average football revenue: $63.6 million Average football revenue: $67.7 million Average football revenue: $47.9 million Average football revenue: $67.7 million Average football revenue: $67.5 million Average football revenue: $51.0 million Location and demographics were a positive for NC State (the Triangle region has a lot of potential) and a negative for Texas Tech (Lubbock is not Fort Worth). There's little separation between Northwestern and in-state rival Illinois, but the $850 million stadium the Wildcats plan to open in 2026 helps their case. Despite Kentucky's reported revenues (lower than we expected), we figured the Wildcats' spot in the SEC was worth enough to put them ahead of a rival in the next tier. At the high end of this group, Virginia Tech is slightly higher than the $450 million valuation for the WNBA's New York Liberty. Average football revenue: $64.3 million Average football revenue: $57.3 million Average football revenue: $53.1 million Average football revenue: $61.2 million Average football revenue: $49.9 million A year ago, we would have treated Indiana like one of the Big Ten's bottom teams, but a CFP run moved the Hoosiers up a peg. Oklahoma State and Arizona State end up with an almost identical price, as we weighed the Cowboys' greater revenue against the Sun Devils' greater potential (Tempe is in a county that's among the nation's largest in population and recent population growth). Arizona State's CFP run also helps. Louisville lands where we expected as a solid middle-class ACC program. Advertisement Purdue offers more stability and a higher floor than the Big Ten programs beneath it. This cost puts the Boilermakers slightly behind Forbes' valuation for another in-state team, the WNBA's Indiana Fever. Average football revenue: $56.7 million Average football revenue: $42.2 million Average football revenue: $55.2 million Average football revenue: $54.9 million Average football revenue: $54.6 million Average football revenue: $64.7 million Average football revenue: $53.6 million Los Angeles glamor inflates UCLA, just as it did USC, but playing off-campus is a bit of a drawback (despite the fact that it's the Rose Bowl). Although we can't isolate Deion Sanders' impact on Colorado, we conservatively estimated it to be at least $50 million. Why? Without Sanders, the Buffaloes (two 10-win seasons this century) would undoubtedly be lower on this list. But we didn't want to make too much of it because there's no guarantee the bump lasts beyond his tenure, whenever and however it ends. Duke's value was deflated by its history (one top-25 finish in the last six decades) and the fact that it's the school's No. 2 sport behind men's basketball. This price point is comparable to the 2019 expansion fee for a Charlotte club to join MLS ($325 million). Average football revenue: $43.7 million Average football revenue: $50.5 million Average football revenue: $57.6 million Average football revenue: $47.4 million Average football revenue: $46.9 million Average football revenue: $46.0 million Much of the parity-filled Big 12 is, fittingly, clustered together, although BYU's revenues are set to rise now that it's eligible for full payouts from the league. Advertisement Maryland is the oddball here. The Terrapins' last 10-win season was in 2003, and they still seem somewhat out of place in the Big Ten. Losing athletic director Damon Evans to SMU and men's basketball coach Kevin Willard to Villanova led to more questions about the school's finances compared to the rest of the conference. Those department-wide questions trickled into our football analysis. Average football revenue: $51.4 million Average football revenue: $41.7 million Average football revenue: $38.1 million Average football revenue: $35.0 million Average football revenue: $40.3 million Virginia has enough brand power and academic prestige to avoid the bottom of the ACC. Stanford is similar, too, but remember that the Big Ten had the chance to add the Cardinal alongside Oregon and Washington in 2023 but did not do so. That's a concern as we consider the program's future in possible realignment/super league iterations. UCF has billed itself as the future of college football. Regardless of whether you believe that lofty claim, the Knights are positioned for upward mobility thanks to one of the nation's largest enrollments plus a growing alumni base and city (Orlando). Mississippi State and Vanderbilt, unsurprisingly, are our final SEC programs. The Bulldogs would cost the same as the expansion fee for a WNBA franchise. Average football revenue: $39.3 million Average football revenue: $37.6 million Average football revenue: $29.7 million Average football revenue: $43.1 million Average football revenue: $39.5 million Advertisement Average football revenue: $31.0 million Average football revenue: $26.4 million Average football revenue: $22.7 million SMU feels like the outlier in the bottom group, especially after last year's Playoff run. But the Mustangs gave up their TV money to join the ACC, putting a cap on their financial earnings. Rutgers still isn't getting a full share from the Big Ten, and the Scarlet Knights don't have enough upside or brand power to be any higher. Cal shares Stanford's long-term realignment concerns but adds an extra wrinkle as a public institution. Cincinnati and Houston have faced early hiccups transitioning from the American Athletic Conference to the Big 12. Both have higher ceilings than Wake Forest, but there's greater risk with the Power 4 newbies, too. Most revenue figures for public schools came from their NCAA financial reports, which we compiled largely through public records requests and schools' websites. Sportico and the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database filled in a few missing pieces. We also used figures submitted by schools to the U.S. Department of Education. If the two sets of numbers were vastly different, we split the difference. Our final revenues were a three-year average. For SEC and Big Ten teams, we set the multiplier range as 5-13x a program's revenue. Because the Big 12 and ACC provide less prestige and more uncertainty, we started with a general range of 4-9x for those teams. Our exercise did not address the new annual expense of up to $20.5 million in paying players, which started July 1. We didn't get into the nitty gritty of assets like stadium values, either. — The Athletic's Scott Dochterman, Matt Brown and Jayson Jenks contributed to this report. (Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Chris Leduc/Icon Sportswire, Kirby Lee, Erich Schlegel / Getty Images) The Rankings and Tiers series is sponsored by E*Trade from Morgan Stanley. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Sponsors have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
Miami Herald
11 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Derrek Cooper, No. 1 RB in 2026, commits to Texas
Derrek Cooper, the top-ranked running in the Class of 2026 by ESPN, committed to Texas on Sunday night. Cooper, a native of Hollywood, Fla., chose the Longhorns over finalists Florida State, Georgia, Miami and Ohio State. A two-way player for Chaminade-Madonna Prep listed at 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds, Cooper is listed in the athlete category by the 247Sports Composite, where he is a five-star ranked No. 29 overall in the class and No. 2 in Florida. Cooper joins a star-studded freshman class for Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns next year. They already had signed three other ESPN five-stars: quarterback Dia Bell, defensive end Richard Wesley and linebacker Tyler Atkinson. --Field Level Media Field Level Media 2025 - All Rights Reserved
