Alex Swenson, a former Division I coach, ranks the top 25 college baseball teams heading into 2025. He breaks down what makes each program competitive, tours their facilities, and shares what high school players should know about getting recruited.
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The 2025 D1 baseball season is upon us and I'm excited to go over some of the top teams in the country. And this is a preseason top 25. There's a lot of other great programs that I want you guys to check out, but I know that there's going to be some teams that you're very interested in and maybe getting recruited from some of these schools and making sure that you are doing your homework and considering other schools, other levels as we go for. And if you're new to my channel, my name is Alex Swinson. I'm a former Division I college coach, scout and recruiter with 11 years of experience. And now what I do is help high school baseball players and their parents navigate this college recruiting process and put them in the best possible position to play at the next level. So if you're looking for more, maybe more personal help going through this and help getting exposure, getting noticed, getting on the radars of these college coaches, you can visit my website down below, right here or down in the description. You can schedule a call with me and see if this is a good fit. So let's go over this preseason top 25. This is from D1Baseball.com. They are a great media company for D1Baseball. They cover everything, D1Baseball, former college coaches and guys that have just been in media for D1 baseball for a long time. I've been following them since I was in college back in 2006. So definitely check them out just for articles maybe about your teams or schools that you're interested in. Take a look at that. So we're going to start with number 25 and work our way down to number one. Let me go and shrink my head here so I can get out of there. So the first one. All right, we have Troy University in Alabama. What they're doing over there is fantastic. They're doing a great job. They went 37 in 22. They are D1 mid majors. They're updating their facilities and very competitive in beating some of these top programs, these Power 4 programs here. And why it's so important to consider D1 Mid majors too, is because the power fours, they are so heavy in the transfer portal. And just from an opportunity standpoint where you're going to have some opportunities at the mid majors as well, and even more. And not to say that mid maters are not in the transfer portal, they are. It's just some of these bigger schools are heavy, heavy into that transfer portal. So considering again, not only D1 but D2 and D3 and juco and all of that will be big going through this recruiting process. So check out Troy. They're awesome. Their facilities are great and only updating as we go. Number 24, University of Nebraska. There's. They went 40 and 22 last year. Definitely check them out. TCU Sarlos over there is fantastic. They've been just a competitor year in and year out. We played against them when I was coaching and that facility is amazing. They went 33 and 21. Number 22, UC Santa Barbara, D1, mid major. Went 44 and 14. Got a lot of guys back this year. A fantastic program. Beautiful Santa Barbara. University of Arizona, consistently in the top 25. They went 36 and 23. Dallas Baptist have had guys here and other schools on this list commit here and they went 45 and 15. Really, really good program. Check them out. Number 19, the University of Texas. Been a staple in college baseball for the longest time, like ever. Them in LSU are just known for one of the top and consistent top D1 programs. They went 36 in 24 last year. Number 18, Mississippi State, 40 in 23 last year. Their facilities are just amazing. They're updating it as well. If you have not seen their facilities, please go check it out. They have apartments and just a bunch of stuff in the outfield and cooking and all the good stuff there at Mississippi State. Number 17, Oklahoma State. Another school, another facility. That's just unbelievable. They went 42 and 19 last year. Number 16, Vanderbilt. Ah, yes, Vanderbilt. Coach Corbin over there just consistently in the top 25. They went 38 and 23 last year. Clemson 44, 16. Coach Bakich over there, man, fantastic coming from Michigan and guys, a stud of a coach and they're, they're going to be a team to really watch this year. And number 14, Wake Forest coach Walter, man, fantastic guy. Unbelievable guy. Unbelievable coach. They went 38 and 22, 13. North Carolina State. Man, they are just resilient. I love this coach. I love this program. They are good in and out every single year. They went 38 and 23. If you remember in Covid, they had to stop playing in the College World Series. They had like 11 or 12 guys and like half of them were pitchers. It was tough to watch. But that program, they do a great job there in the state of North Carolina, which is a lot of good baseball there. The University of Oregon, fantastic facilities as you would imagine. They went 40 and 20. Duke University, high, academic, great baseball program with 40 and 20. The Gators, Florida, they went 36 and 30 coach Robin over there, good friend of mine and I coached with him. They just then the State of Florida, man, so much talent to bring in and get after. And they made it to the College World Series last year. Florida State University 49 and 17. Link over there. Fantastic. Check them out. Georgia 43 and 17. Not just a football school, but a baseball school as well. Oregon State with 49 and 17 been again a huge staple over the last 20 years in college baseball. UNC at Chapel Hill went 48, 16 last year. Number five, Arkansas coach Van Horn. Just one of the best out there. He is consistently in the top 10, I would imagine, in just a program. Their 2018 team when I was at Ole Miss was the best team that I've ever seen on the field and they were that year. They were one out away from the College World Series. Winning it. That ball that dropped in the triangle. It was tough to watch, but they have a lot of upside here. 44, 16 last year. Tennessee, who won the College World series last year, 60 and 13. LSU, 43 and 23. One of my guys just committed there. Super pumped for him. The University of Virginia coach o'. Connor. Oh, man. Again a staple in College Baseball, went 46 in the and 17 last year. In number one, Texas A&M, they went 53 and 15. Who would you have in your top 25 or even schools that you were interested in and think that are going to be pretty good? Comment down below in the comment section. I'll see you in the next video. Take care.
