College baseball takes center stage this weekend with a matchup between the last two national champions. The nation’s attention will fall on a three-game series between No. 6 Tennessee and No. 7 LSU.
What began as a fairly routine conference matchup has become a full-blown collision of culture and postseason ambition. It’s a rivalry born not from tradition but in the tension of momentum of the rapidly moving season.
As the 2025 season progresses toward the postseason, it’s become a test for measuring who’s built for Omaha, given the current D1 baseball rankings, where they both sit in the top 10. The pair head into a season-defining series this weekend.
To understand the weight of this rivalry, let’s start with LSU, the gold standard of college baseball. In the 1990s, under renowned coach Skip Bertman, the Tigers turned baseball into a spectacle by building a college baseball dynasty.
They didn’t just win; they dominated the college baseball world, claiming five national titles between 1991 and 2000, including the back-to-back championships in 1996 and 1997. Bertman’s teams were fueled by a fanbase that treats baseball like Saturday night in Death Valley.
Under Paul Mainieri, the legacy only continued. A national title in 2009 and multiple deep runs in Omaha cemented LSU as a powerhouse. The program has kept going while Jay Johnson is the head coach.
They built a culture where anything short of mid-June baseball is seen as a failure, and fans ensured the team knew about it.
For most of LSU’s height, Tennessee was never on the radar. The Vols had brief moments, including a trip to the College World Series in 1995 under Rod Delmonico and again in 2001, but there was a lack of consistency.
While LSU was stacking titles and producing MLB stars, Tennessee was in the middle of the SEC pack, struggling to break through in a league that only got stronger and became one of the hardest leagues to play in college baseball.
That saw a shift when Tony Vitello took over in 2018.
From the start, Vitello brought fire and a sense of determination to paint a new history for Tennessee. A former Arkansas assistant with a grinder’s mentality, he turned Tennessee into a program to take note of. He recruited aggressively, leaned into Knoxville’s heavy baseball talent available to him and created an unapologetically bold team.
By 2021, Tennessee was back in Omaha for the first time in 16 years. In 2022, it was the undisputed No. 1 seed with a 57-win season that saw the team dominate the regular season but fall short in Super Regionals, a result that stung but only hardened the Volunteers’ edge.
In a few short years, Tennessee went from an SEC afterthought to one of the conference’s most feared opponents, and no program took more notice than LSU. This rivalry had crossed paths many times before 2023, but never with such talent and national spotlight.
That memorable spring, both were ranked inside the top five. LSU featured the future No. 1 overall MLB Draft pick, Paul Skenes and the eventual Golden Spikes Award winner, Dylan Crews. Tennessee came into Baton Rouge on March 30 with one of the deepest pitching staffs in the nation and a chip on their shoulder the size of Neyland Stadium.
The series in Baton Rouge felt like Omaha in March.
It was SEC baseball at its purest: intense, personal and unforgettable.
This rivalry set a school single-game attendance record of 13,068 fans at Alex Box to watch LSU take on the Volunteers. LSU won that single game and the series but fell short of a sweep.
LSU went all the way that summer, capturing its seventh national title. Tennessee, meanwhile, made it back to Omaha but again fell short of the championship series.
The following season, Tennessee paid it off with a College World Series Championship of its own. Coming into 2025, the Volunteers looked poised to repeat, smashing non-conference series’ and riding high into SEC play.
However, nothing is guaranteed in the SEC, and things are constantly changing.
Midseason stumbles, injuries, slumping bats and a few too many bullpen collapses have brought Tennessee back to earth as the current No. 6, sitting just in front of LSU.
The once-unbeatable Vols are battling inconsistency, and questions are surfacing: Can they close when it counts? Can they live up to their former No. 1 billing? Can they finally finish in Omaha?
Meanwhile, LSU is doing what it always does: building steam in the second half. With a mix of seasoned returners and emerging newcomers, the Tigers are again positioning themselves for a deep postseason run if they can continue winning.
After some questionable weekend series on the road, they remind everyone that championships aren’t won in February rankings; they’re won in June.
Every matchup adds another layer: Vitello’s mission to bring a title to Knoxville, LSU’s relentless pursuit of more and the SEC’s dominance on the national stage. In the last five years, the conference has sent more teams to Omaha than any other. The path to the national championship doesn’t just go through the SEC; it is the SEC.
And with LSU and Tennessee standing near the top, their rivalry is no longer a footnote. It’s a headline that thousands will take notice of this weekend at Alex Box.
The road to Omaha is long, winding and brutal. But this weekend’s series will provide insight into who can handle the pressure of intense SEC matchups and who will prove themselves.
