photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas senior Josh Dykhoff celebrates as he trots around the bases during the Jayhawks' NCAA tournament game against Arkansas on Sunday, May 31, 2026, at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence.

The Kansas baseball team has reached essentially unprecedented heights during its 2026 season by somehow synthesizing its first regular-season conference title in 77 years, conference tournament title in 20 years and regional title in 33 years into a single dominant campaign.

It’s not over yet, either, with the Jayhawks now two wins from a College World Series berth as they host Oklahoma for a best-of-three series beginning on Saturday at 5 p.m.

But KU’s uncommon accomplishments on its way to its first-ever super regional seem far less unusual in the context of the full field of 16 teams remaining in the NCAA Tournament.

Little Rock, in its third-ever postseason appearance, went unbeaten as the No. 4 seed in the Hattiesburg Regional. Its opponent and host this weekend will be Troy — which is also brand new to the super-regional round after storming through the losers’ bracket of the Gainesville Regional as a No. 3 seed and beating Florida twice to keep its season alive.

Cal Poly is another first-timer, having benefited from the stunning elimination of No. 1 overall seed UCLA in its own home regional. In all, the Nos. 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 12 and 13 seeds bit the dust in the regional round.

Not to mention that every team from last year’s College World Series is out. Arizona, Louisville, defending national champion LSU, Murray State and Vanderbilt missed the tournament altogether. Coastal Carolina went 0-2 in the Tallahassee Regional, and Arkansas and Oregon State lost in regional finals at KU and Oregon, respectively.

According to the NCAA, it is the first time the entire College World Series field from one season has exited in the following year’s regional round, and it all gives the impression of significant parity.

KU coach Dan Fitzgerald attributed these results to the era of the transfer portal in which “you can get good in a hurry and you can get bad in a hurry, and the culture piece is super important.”

“As a baseball coach it’s not surprising to see Little Rock and Troy in supers,” he added. “Those are two elite coaches, elite staffs. And you know, you could look through everyone that was playing yesterday. Milwaukee’s really good.”

The Panthers, who came to KU for a four-game series in 2025, were at one point 5-23 in early April of this year before embarking on a run through the Horizon League, winning their first two games of the Auburn Regional, but falling short twice against the host Tigers.

“They’ve got a bunch of older players and gave Auburn everything they could handle,” Fitzgerald said. “When you’re inside the industry and know those coaches and know those programs, it’s not super surprising.”

Fitzgerald, KU’s fourth-year head coach who previously served as an assistant at LSU and Dallas Baptist, pointed to a trend frequently discussed in other sports in the portal era — the increased difficulty, for traditional powers, of retaining young players for years at a time before they finally get to contribute as upperclassmen.

“That happens less and less, so probably creates some parity,” Fitzgerald said. “And then also I think you look at the way that some of the quote-unquote mid-majors recruit, and they’re getting really good players from the portal, from junior college, from high school. So I think just the parity’s created by being able to impact your roster more significantly on a year-to-year basis.”

There may be some first-time participants in this year’s College World Series; between Little Rock and Troy, at least one is a guarantee, and the same is true with Cal Poly and West Virginia, who are paired for the Morgantown Super Regional.

KU, which reached the College World Series in 1993, joins Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Mississippi State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon, St. John’s, Texas and USC among schools hoping to make a return trip to Omaha, Nebraska.

photo by: AP Photo/Matthew Hinton

Little Rock first baseman Easton Roe (4) throws during an NCAA regional baseball game on Friday, May 29, 2026, in Hattiesburg, Miss.

photo by: AP Photo/John McCoy

Cal Poly’s Nate Castellon (7) during an NCAA regional baseball game on Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Los Angeles.

photo by: AP Photo/Gary McCullough

Troy utility Drew Nelson (22) runs to first during an NCAA regional baseball game against Miami on Friday, May 29, 2026, in Gainesville, Fla.