Tennessee Wins First College World Series in Program History

Earlier this week, Tennessee left Omaha as the champion of the Men’s College World Series for the first time in the program’s history.

The Volunteers took home the trophy from Charles Schwab Field after winning the final two games of the best-of-three series against Texas A&M, becoming the first No. 1 overall seed to win the tournament in 25 years. Miami is the only other school to have won the CWS as the top seed.

Tennessee’s victory as the No. 1 seed was no surprise as the Vols became the first team in SEC history to win 60 games and the first team overall since 1989.

Tony Vitello, Tennessee’s head coach, was hired in 2017 and first took the Vols to the College World Series in 2021. He came from Arkansas, where he was an assistant coach from 2014-2017. Before that, he worked for Jim Schlossnagle at TCU, who was A&M’s head coach as of Monday but has since accepted a job with Texas.

This year’s College World Series championship was the second-most viewed in history. Across ABC, ESPN and ESPNU, the three games average 2.82 million viewers – just 2% shy of last year’s. Game 2 set a record as the most-watched Game 2 for a CWS final, attracting 2.92 million viewers.

Across the entirety of the tournament, the 15 games averaged 1.6 million viewers, which is also the second-best on record, behind only last year’s 1.65 million across 16 games. 

Despite the absence of any Nebraska teams in the tournament, the demand for tickets remained strong.

Game 1 of the championship series between the Aggies and Vols had the highest average ticket price of the tournament at $417, followed by Game 3 at $409 and Game 2 at $397.

 Apart from the championship, A&M and Florida had the highest average ticket price at $223.

Now that the College World Series is over, fans will have to tune in to Major League Baseball to get their baseball fix.