Best time of the year is upon us and all fans want to know is, are we hosting? Are we hosting a super? I go through all teams relevant and have a legitimate shot at hosting. Will possibliysbe missing a team or 2 that go on a Linsanity run the next 10 days.
This weekend, East Lansing crafted and set the best bear trap that they could find. Their end goal is to get to the Big Ten Conference Tournament at Omaha in late May. In order to make that possibility a lot easier, they knew they needed fur from the coat of the nation’s No. 1 team. The UCLA Bruins sleepwalked around the trees on the banks of the Red Cedar River for 24 total innings and still escaped with a regular season conference title and their perfect 24-0 B1G record intact.
I built this pool by using historical national champion schedule data (2010+ champions with RPI context), then applying those same profile thresholds to 2026 results. Using criteria such as overall %, positive RD/G and competence vs Top50 RPI teams.
Three and a half seasons. Over 7 million pitches. And a clear signal buried in the data. From 2024 to 2026, slugging percentage against the college four-seam fastball dropped from .530 to .503. Barrel rate fell from 21.5% to 19.9%. The rate of well-struck balls in the optimal launch angle window (exit velocity 95+, launch angle 10–30°) declined from 19.1% to 17.5%.
