With the Big Ten now a coast-to-coast conference, Omaha is a sensible location for the conference tournament, with relatively easy travel for teams from both coasts as well as the Big Ten’s legacy markets. Understandably, Nebraska was, by far, the biggest draw at Charles Schwab Field, with 7,035 coming through the gates for the Huskers’ quarterfinal win against Michigan that started at 11 p.m. local time Friday and 12,083 coming out for their 8-0 semifinal loss to Oregon on Saturday evening.
With two West Coast team in the championship game and Nebraska eliminated, the final game drew a modest crowd of 3,045.
All told, the tournament featured some great games, with UCLA, the No. 1 team in the country, taking the title by winning three games in the bottom of the final inning.
With NCAA Tournament field being announced this afternoon, let’s look at some notes from the week that was in Omaha, a place to which several of these teams hope to return in a few weeks.
USC Isn’t Hosting a Regional – Ranked No. 9 in the RPI, USC seemed like a lock to host a regional in the NCAA tournament. Instead, they were passed over, with Lawrence, Kansas, home of the University of Kansas, ranked No. 19 in RPI, and Morgantown, W. Va., home of West Virginia University, ranked No. 17, getting regionals.
With five teams from out west (Cal Poly, San Diego State, Tarleton State, San Francisco, and UC San Diego) earning automatic bids for winning their conference tournaments, it can be inferred that having a third regional on the west coast would have added a lot of travel for teams from the east and midwest.
Who Got In, Who Didn’t – Obviously, UCLA will be in the tournament, having won the automatic bid that comes with winning the Big Ten tournament. They’ll be joined by regional hosts Nebraska and Oregon, and by USC, which undoubtedly will get in given their position in the RPI.
The Big Ten also had two teams on the bubble – Michigan and Purdue, ranked Nos. 53 and 54 in the RPI, respectively. and neither got in.
To their credit, Purdue took No. 1-ranked UCLA to the bottom of the ninth and had a great season. Michigan made it to the quarterfinals from the double-elimination portion of the bracket before getting bounced by Nebraska in a game that started at 11 p.m. local time due to rain delays and the weather forecast earlier in the day.
There are 29 automatic bids handed out to the NCAA Tournament, and outside of RPI rankings and a committee vote, there’s really no better system to determine which bubble teams get in. It’s like the saying, “Democracy is the worst form of government, but it’s better than all the other ones.”
Is the answer to expand the tournament? Perhaps. The NCAA Basketball tournament has increased in size, and there are about 360 Division I basketball programs compared to 300 Division I baseball programs.
The answer, however, is not to cut down the number of automatic bids, or to take away automatic bids from the mid-major or low-major conferences. Doing that would only serve to remove the proverbial carrot from the stick.
What if the Big Ten, ACC, SEC, and Big 12 had a rule that teams ranked above No. 40 in the RPI couldn’t be awarded the automatic bid? All four semifinalists at the Big Ten tournament were already going to get in to the NCAA Tournament based upon their RPI, so UCLA’s winning an automatic bid may have actually prevented the Big Ten from getting a fifth team into the tournament.
One thought would be to have out-bracket games to determine which of the four quarterfinalists that were eliminated in the round of eight got the automatic bid. The teams in the top 40 could continue on and still win the conference tournament, they just wouldn’t get the automatic bid anyway because they don’t need it. Of course, those games might not be able to be played at the same venue given the time constraints of getting the tournament done, so that may not be much of a solution, either.
That said, mid-major fans would argue that the big four conferences already have too much power and influence, and that a fifth Big Ten team this year would likely have come at the expense of a mid-major team getting in. And they’d be right.
How The MLB Pipeline Draft Prospects Fared
No. 1 – Roch Cholowsky, SS, UCLA – Cholowsky was 4-for-14 with a run scored and a walk. He had a total of 10 chances in the field and made no errors. He was a steady, if not flashy, player for UCLA, and showed some tenacity and discipline at the plate, notably working two counts full against USC.
No. 20 – Logan Reddeman, RHP, UCLA – Reddeman didn’t pitch for UCLA at the Big Ten Baseball Championship, having last appeared in a game on April 17 against Minnesota. Head coach John Savage said that he expects Reddeman to be available for limited work in the NCAA Regional.
No. 36 – Mason Edwards, LHP, Southern California – Edwards threw four scoreless innings in USC’s 4-0 quarterfinal win against Michigan State, allowing two hits, two walks, and striking out six. A 102-minute rain delay ended his outing.
No. 76 – Peyton Bonds, OF, Rutgers – The son of Bobby Bonds II and nephew of Barry Bonds batted .352 over the course of the season with six homers and 29 RBIs in 36 games this season, but didn’t play in the Scarlet Knights tournament opener against Michigan. He had one at-bat and drew two intentional walks in the season-ending loss to Ohio State on Wednesday night.
No. 93 – Mulivai Levu, 1B, UCLA – Harnessing the power of friendship, Levu likely raised his draft stock this week, driving in the winning run with a sac fly against Purdue in the bottom of the ninth, then driving in the winning runs against USC with a three-run homer on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the ninth. While he went 0-for-5 in the final against Oregon, his body of work in the tournament (5-for-13, 2 R, 5 RBIs, 1 BB) was more than enough to earn him the Most Outstanding Player award.
No. 98 – Will Gasparino, OF, UCLA – Gasparino went 5-for-9 with a walk at the plate for the Bruins, scoring a run and picking up an RBI. He was ejected under the NCAA’s malicious contact rule when he bowled over Oregon third baseman Drew Smith in the fourth inning of the championship game after being caught in a rundown. That ejection, by rule, carries a one-game suspension, so Gasparino likely won’t be able to play in UCLA’s NCAA Tournament opener, though Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski said that he hopes Gasparino isn’t suspended for the play.
No. 114 – Isaac Morton, RHP, Minnesota – Minnesota finished 13th in the league, missing the tournament with an 11-19 record. Morton made 13 starts for the Golden Gophers this season, throwing 60 2/3 innings while posting a 3.26 ERA, a 1.170 WHIP, and recording 63 strikeouts against 25 walks. Opponents batted .211 against him this year. According to MLB Pipeline, the Texas A&M transfer “generates premium stuff from a sidearm slot and low release height, creating plenty of run and sink on a fastball that operates at 93-95 mph and touches 97. He produces premium spin rates on a mid-80s slider with excessive sweep and a cutter that parks in the low 90s.”
No. 118 – Roman Martin, 3B, UCLA – Martin went 3-for-13, scoring two runs and driving in one from the cleanup spot, striking out four times.
No. 122 – Maddox Molony, SS, Oregon – Molony went 2-for-10 with a solo homer in the Ducks’ semifinal win over Nebraska.
No. 134 – Ryan Cooney, 2B, Oregon – Cooney went 2-for-10 with three RBIs for the Ducks and was a solid, if not flashy, defender at second.
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2026 Big Ten Baseball Championship All-Tournament Team
P – Shane Brinham, Michigan
P – Cal Scolari, Oregon
P – Will Sanford, Oregon
C – Noah Miller, Michigan
1B – Mulivai Levu, UCLA
2B – Dylan Drake, Purdue
SS – Henry Kaczmar, Ohio State
3B – Drew Smith, Oregon
OF – Angel Laya, Oregon
OF – Will Gasparino, UCLA
OF – Mic Paul, Washington
DH – Naulivou Lauaki Jr., Oregon
Most Outstanding Player
Mulivai Levu, UCLA
My 2026 Big Ten Baseball Championship All-Tournament Ballot
P – Angel Cervantes, UCLA
P – Shane Brinham, Michigan
P – Will Sanford, Oregon
C – Kevin Takeuchi, USC
1B – Mulivai Levu, UCLA
2B – Abbrie Covarrubias, USC
3B – Drew Smith, Oregon
SS – Maddox Molony, Oregon
OF – Dean West, UCLA
OF – Will Gasparino, UCLA
OF – Jack Brooks, Oregon
DH – Naulivou Lauaki Jr., Oregon
Most Outstanding Player
Mulivai Levu, UCLA
Photo: UCLAs’ Mulivai Levu (39) during an NCAA regional baseball game on Friday, May 30, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John McCoy)
