NCAA Division 1 Post-Season History

July 4, 2015
I thought it would might be fun to apply something like the formulas described in The Bluesknight Cup to aggregates based upon historical results. Those formulae were designed specifically for the 64-team tournament format, so necessarily the data are limited to results beginning with 1999. I did take a glancing look at the entire CWS history, though,

CWS History by Conference
There have been 69 College World Series, and the table (below left) summarizes participants by current conference affiliation. The conferences are ordered by a simple scoring system that gives 1 point for each conference team that made the CWS, 3 extra points for those that finished 2nd, and 7 extra points for each champion. The number of different teams from the conference in each category is given in parentheses.

I chose current conference affiliation over historical ("at the time") affiliation to ensure that set of unique participants in each column is disjoint - there's no double-counting when the numbers in parentheses are summed. Tables based upon historical affiliation can be found at the Wikipedia College World Series page. Some observations follow.

ScoreConf#Yrs#CWS#Chmp#2ndEither
338P126397 (10)28 (7) 15 (6)43 (8)
217SEC5092 (13)11 (5) 16 (9)27 (10)
168B125272 (7)9 (3) 11 (2)20 (3)
162ACC5490 (12)6 (3) 10 (6)16 (6)
76B102728 (9)6 (3) 2 (2)8 (4)
58BigW2324 (4)4 (1) 2 (2)6 (2)
38MVC1616 (5)15 (2)6 (2)
26NonD11320 (15)02 (2)2 (2)
16WCC66 (4)112 (2)
16MAC1010 (4)02 (2)2 (2)
15Pat78 (2)101
15CUSA88 (2)101
14Ivy88 (4)02 (1)2 (1)
12MW55 (2)101
12AAC99 (3)011
11BigE1111 (3)00 
11WAC1111 (2)00 
8AE88 (2)00 
3SBC33 (2)00 
3CAA33 (3)00 
3A1033 (2)00 
1SoCon1100 
1MAAC1100 
1Summ1100 
1SLC1100 
  • 114 teams have played in the CWS since 1947, and 15 of those no longer field Division 1 teams. Nearly ⅓ of current Division 1 programs have at least one CWS appearance.

  • Teams in the current Pac 12 have appeared in 63 of the 69 years. Remarkable as that may be, a third of the missing years are the two most recent. The ACC, Big 12 and SEC (in that order) are the only other conferences represented in more than half the CWS.

  • All but one of the current SEC (13 of 14) and Pac 12 (10 of 11) teams have made an appearance at the CWS. 12 of the 14 ACC teams, seven of the nine Big 12 teams, nine of the 13 B1G teams and five of the eight Missouri Valley teams have also done so and those are the only conferences with more than half of their teams with such a claim.

  • Only 27 teams representing 11 conferences have won championships. Another 19 including six from four more conferences have finished 2nd.

  • More than half the championships have been won by 12 teams from just two conferences: the Pac 12 and SEC.

Recent History
It would be nice to summarize team and conference results for the post-season, not just the CWS. That is complicated by the format changes over the 69 seasons for which there's been a playoff, so for the remainder of this article we'll consider only post-season results after 1998.

1999 marked the beginning of the 64-team tournament with each conference having an automatic bid with 16 regionals determining the "sweet 16" Super-Regional participants. Pairs meet in best-of-three series to determine the "elite 8" CWS teams, from which baseball derives a "final two" from the CWS brackets. (There's a "final four" stage, but it doesn't really correspond to basketball as much as the others.)

Again we use a simple formula, but this time we're considering all levels of the post season, not just the CWS. For each team calculate a score as:

#regionals + 3×#super regionals + 8×#CWS appearances + 24×#times finished second + 56×#championships
Winning it all is worth 68 points in a given year, finishing second 36, making the CWS but not winning a bracket is worth 12, and winning a regional four. Making the post-season is worth a point a year. Conference-level scores are just the sum of the scores of the teams who are currently members of the conference.

226 teams have played in the tournament since the advent of automatic bids in 1999. Five of those are no longer in Division 1, either having dropped ths sport or moved to a different division. Still, nearly three quarters of the current field have at least one appearance. Miami, Fullerton and Rice have participated every year.

Post-Season Results by Conference 1999-2015

ScoreConfAppTeamsSR#SRtmsCWS#CWStms2nd#2ndtmsChamp#Champtms#Finalists
1097 SEC 149146813371175536
848 ACC 13112631033943324
688 P12 811137822742434
434 B12 73827715621211
236 BigW 46918310200111
210 CUSA 59101347200111
118 B10 5012127420 
102 MW 246222200111
94 AAC 457114210 
60 SBC 401041110 
50 MVC 27753110 
36 CAA 308210 
30 WCC 276110 
29 BigS 236210 
28 MAC 17611110 
27 A10 218220 
ScoreConfAppTeamsSR#SRtmsCWS#CWStms2nd#2ndtmsChamp#Champtms#Finalists
25 AE 14511110 
23 BigE 205110 
21 ASUN 184110 
20 Summ 173110 
19 SLC 1980 
18 OVC 1880 
18 MAAC 1870 
17 Pat 1750 
17 SWAC 1760 
17 MEAC 1740 
17 Ivy 1760 
16 Hor 1650 
13 SoCon 1370 
12 NE 1250 
7 NonD1 750 
5 WAC 530 

:

Teams in CWS
Conf19992000200120022003200420052006200720082009201020112012201320142015Score
Southeastern212124211222432249.3507
Atlantic Coast221311042322213226.9501
Big XII110111200012100313.7110
Pac 12122111212112122003.0207
Big West101011012010000112.2508
Conference USA100110011110000000.6861
Big 10001100100000001000.5623
America East000000000000010000.2500
Mid-American000000000000010000.2500
Mountain West010000000100000000.1875
American Athletic001000100000000000.1576
Missouri Valley000010000000000000.0769
Sun Belt010000000000000000.0625
Conf19992000200120022003200420052006200720082009201020112012201320142015

Here are the interconference results for the autobid era.

Post-Season Interconference Results 1999-present
ACCBigSMEACSoConCUSASLCSWACAACA10BigECAAIndIvyB10MACOVCSummB12HorMVCAEMAACNEPatASUNSECSBCBigWMWP12WCCWAC
Atlantic Coast 27-27 15-4 12-0 12-1 28-11   18-7 13-5 7-7 24-2  8-2 16-13 4-1 7-2 4-0 19-24 3-1 6-4 5-2 7-0 5-0 11-2 18-3 103-111 11-4 11-16 5-3 24-38 2-1 1-0ACC
Big South 4-15   0-1 1-0  1-0 4-4 1-0 2-0 4-1  1-0 1-1 0-1   1-2  1-2 3-0 1-0  0-1 1-0 1-16 1-0  2-0 0-3  BigS
MidEast Athletic 0-12    1-3   0-2   0-1  1-0    0-1 0-1  0-1     0-3 0-10      MEAC
Southern 1-12 1-0    0-1  1-1 1-1  1-0  0-1 0-1           1-0 2-7 0-1     SoCon
Conference USA 11-28 0-1 3-1  5-5 8-2 6-2 7-7 3-0 2-0 3-4  1-2 2-4  4-0  19-13 1-1 3-0 0-2 2-0 1-0   21-35 8-6 1-0 0-1 6-13 1-0 CUSA
Southland    1-0 2-8  3-0 0-2  0-1        1-9  2-1  2-1 2-0   3-11 3-4   0-1  SLC
Southwestern Athletic  0-1   2-6 0-3  0-4      0-1    0-3        0-11 2-3   0-2  SWAC
American Athletic 7-18 4-4 2-0 1-1 7-7 2-0 4-0 3-3  1-2 4-3  4-1 1-1  0-1 1-0 6-9 1-0 3-1 5-2 2-0 3-0 3-0 1-1 17-25 4-8 0-3 1-3 5-4  1-0AAC
Atlantic 10 5-13 0-1  1-1 0-3     0-2 0-1  1-0 1-2    0-1 1-0 2-2 0-1   1-1  1-8  1-3  3-2 0-3 A10
Big East 7-7 0-2   0-2 1-0  2-1 2-0     1-4 0-1  1-0 2-5  0-1 1-0     2-6 2-0 0-1 2-0 1-10 1-0 BigE
Colonial Athletic 2-24 1-4 1-0 0-1 4-3   3-4 1-0  5-5   1-0 1-1  1-2 0-2   2-0  2-0 2-0  9-11 1-2 2-0  0-1  CAA
Independent                                Ind
Ivy League 2-8 0-1 0-1 1-0 2-1   1-4 0-1         0-6        0-6 0-1 0-2 1-0 0-2 0-1 Ivy
Big 10 13-16 1-1  1-0 4-2  1-0 1-1 2-1 4-1 0-1   4-4 6-2 4-0 0-1 2-6 6-0 6-7 1-0 3-1  3-0 2-0 11-21 1-2 4-14 1-2 8-19 3-2 B10
Mid-American 1-4 1-0        1-0 1-1   2-6   0-1 1-5 0-1   1-0    4-9 1-1 1-1  2-6  MAC
Ohio Valley 2-7    0-4   1-0      0-4   0-1 1-2 1-0 1-2      3-12 1-1 1-0  1-3  OVC
Summit 0-4  1-0     0-1  0-1 2-1   1-0 1-0 1-0  7-8  3-4      1-4  1-2 0-2 1-6 0-1 Summ
Big XII 24-19 2-1 1-0  13-19 9-1 3-0 9-6 1-0 5-2 2-0  6-0 6-2 5-1 2-1 8-7 21-21 4-0 8-8 3-0 3-0 4-0 4-0  38-33 7-4 6-9  25-29 2-1 B12
Horizon League 1-3    1-1   0-1 0-1     0-6 1-0 0-1  0-4  2-1      1-4  1-3  0-6 0-1 Hor
Missouri Valley 4-6 2-1 1-0  0-3 1-2  1-3 2-2 1-0    7-6  2-1 4-3 8-8 1-2  0-1 2-2  1-0  7-10 1-0 0-3  4-4  MVC
America East 2-5 0-3   2-0   2-5 1-0 0-1 0-2   0-1    0-3  1-0   1-0   2-6  0-1  0-2 0-1 AE
Metro Atlantic Athletic 0-7 0-1   0-2 1-2  0-2      1-3 0-1   0-3  2-2     0-1 0-7  1-1  0-4 1-0 MAAC
Northeast 0-5    0-1 0-2  0-3   0-2       0-4   0-1    0-1 1-3   0-1 0-1  NE
Patriot League 2-11 1-0      0-3 1-1  0-2   0-3    0-4  0-1     0-1 0-7 2-1     Pat
Atlantic Sun 3-18 0-1 3-0 0-1    1-1      0-2        1-0 1-0 1-0  6-13 1-0     ASUN
Southeastern 111-103 16-1 10-0 7-2 35-21 11-3 11-0 25-17 8-1 6-2 11-9  6-0 21-11 9-4 12-3 4-1 33-38 4-1 10-7 6-2 7-0 3-1 7-0 13-6 33-33 29-10 12-14 6-4 37-37 2-2 1-1SEC
Sun Belt 4-11 0-1  1-0 6-8 4-3 3-2 8-4  0-2 2-1  1-0 2-1 1-1 1-1  4-7  0-1    1-2 0-1 10-29   2-1 0-5 0-1 SBC
Big West 16-11    0-1   3-0 3-1 1-0 0-2  2-0 14-4 1-1 0-1 2-1 9-6 3-1 3-0 1-0 1-1    14-12  2-2 11-2 30-45 13-9 2-0BigW
Mountain West 3-5 0-2   1-0   3-1  0-2   0-1 2-1   2-0      1-0   4-6 1-2 2-11 2-2 3-14 8-4 1-1MW
Pac 12 38-24 3-0   13-6 1-0 2-0 4-5 2-3 10-1 1-0  2-0 19-8 6-2 3-1 6-1 29-25 6-0 4-4 2-0 4-0 1-0   37-37 5-0 45-30 14-3 11-11 20-9 3-1P12
West Coast 1-2    0-1    3-0 0-1   1-0 2-3   1-0 1-2 1-0  1-0 0-1    2-2 1-0 9-13 4-8 9-20  1-0WCC
Western Athletic 0-1       0-1                  1-1  0-2 1-1 1-3 0-1 WAC
ACCBigSMEACSoConCUSASLCSWACAACA10BigECAAIndIvyB10MACOVCSummB12HorMVCAEMAACNEPatASUNSECSBCBigWMWP12WCCWAC

Regionals

ACCBigSMEACSoConCUSASLCSWACAACA10BigECAAIvyB10MACOVCSummB12HorMVCAEMAACNEPatASUNSECSBCBigWMWP12WCCWAC
Atlantic Coast 7-7 13-4 12-0 12-1 19-8   16-7 11-5 7-7 22-2 8-2 11-7 4-1 7-2 2-0 11-12 3-1 3-3 4-2 7-0 5-0 11-2 16-3 52-51 11-3 4-8 3-1 7-14 2-1 1-0ACC
Big South 4-13   0-1 1-0  1-0 4-4 1-0 2-0 4-1 1-0 1-1 0-1   1-2  1-2 3-0 1-0  0-1 1-0 1-14 1-0  2-0 0-3  BigS
MidEast Athletic 0-12    1-3   0-2   0-1 1-0    0-1 0-1  0-1     0-3 0-10      MEAC
Southern 1-12 1-0    0-1  1-1 1-1  1-0 0-1 0-1           1-0 2-7 0-1     SoCon
Conference USA 8-19 0-1 3-1  5-5 8-2 6-2 4-4 3-0 2-0 3-4 1-2 2-2  4-0  14-10 1-1 2-0 0-2 2-0 1-0   12-31 6-5 1-0  4-8 1-0 CUSA
Southland    1-0 2-8  3-0 0-2  0-1       1-9  2-1  2-1 2-0   3-11 3-4   0-1  SLC
Southwestern Athletic  0-1   2-6 0-3  0-4     0-1    0-3        0-11 2-3   0-2  SWAC
American Athletic 7-16 4-4 2-0 1-1 4-4 2-0 4-0 3-3  1-2 4-3 4-1 0-1  0-1 1-0 5-3 1-0 3-1 5-2 2-0 3-0 3-0 1-1 15-18 4-8  0-1 4-3  1-0AAC
Atlantic 10 5-11 0-1  1-1 0-3     0-2 0-1 1-0     0-1 1-0 2-2 0-1   1-1  1-8  1-3  3-2 0-3 A10
Big East 7-7 0-2   0-2 1-0  2-1 2-0    1-4 0-1  1-0 2-5  0-1 1-0     2-6 2-0 0-1 2-0 1-8 1-0 BigE
Colonial Athletic 2-22 1-4 1-0 0-1 4-3   3-4 1-0  5-5  1-0 1-1  1-2    2-0  2-0 2-0  9-11 1-2 2-0  0-1  CAA
Ivy League 2-8 0-1 0-1 1-0 2-1   1-4 0-1        0-6        0-6 0-1 0-2 1-0 0-2 0-1 Ivy
Big 10 7-11 1-1  1-0 2-2  1-0 1-0  4-1 0-1  4-4 6-2 4-0 0-1 2-4 6-0 6-5 1-0 3-1  3-0 2-0 11-16 1-2 3-11 1-2 6-13 3-2 B10
Mid-American 1-4 1-0        1-0 1-1  2-6   0-1 1-5 0-1   1-0    3-7 1-1 1-1  0-5  MAC
Ohio Valley 2-7    0-4   1-0     0-4   0-1 1-2 1-0 1-2      3-12 1-1 1-0  1-3  OVC
Summit 0-2  1-0     0-1  0-1 2-1  1-0 1-0 1-0  7-8  3-4      1-4  1-2 0-2 1-6 0-1 Summ
Big XII 12-11 2-1 1-0  10-14 9-1 3-0 3-5 1-0 5-2  6-0 4-2 5-1 2-1 8-7 9-9 4-0 8-8 3-0 3-0 4-0 4-0  19-12 7-4 5-4  16-22  B12
Horizon League 1-3    1-1   0-1 0-1    0-6 1-0 0-1  0-4  2-1      1-4  1-3  0-6 0-1 Hor
Missouri Valley 3-3 2-1 1-0  0-2 1-2  1-3 2-2 1-0   5-6  2-1 4-3 8-8 1-2  0-1 2-2  1-0  6-8 1-0 0-1  4-2  MVC
America East 2-4 0-3   2-0   2-5 1-0 0-1 0-2  0-1    0-3  1-0   1-0   0-5  0-1  0-1 0-1 AE
Metro Atlantic Athletic 0-7 0-1   0-2 1-2  0-2     1-3 0-1   0-3  2-2     0-1 0-7  1-1  0-4 1-0 MAAC
Northeast 0-5    0-1 0-2  0-3   0-2      0-4   0-1    0-1 1-3   0-1 0-1  NE
Patriot League 2-11 1-0      0-3 1-1  0-2  0-3    0-4  0-1     0-1 0-7 2-1     Pat
Atlantic Sun 3-16 0-1 3-0 0-1    1-1     0-2        1-0 1-0 1-0  6-13 1-0     ASUN
Southeastern 51-52 14-1 10-0 7-2 31-12 11-3 11-0 18-15 8-1 6-2 11-9 6-0 16-11 7-3 12-3 4-1 12-19 4-1 8-6 5-0 7-0 3-1 7-0 13-6 8-8 24-7 5-5 5-2 17-16 2-2 1-1SEC
Sun Belt 3-11 0-1  1-0 5-6 4-3 3-2 8-4  0-2 2-1 1-0 2-1 1-1 1-1  4-7  0-1    1-2 0-1 7-24   1-1 0-3 0-1 SBC
Big West 8-4    0-1    3-1 1-0 0-2 2-0 11-3 1-1 0-1 2-1 4-5 3-1 1-0 1-0 1-1    5-5  1-1 11-2 21-24 13-9 2-0BigW
Mountain West 1-3 0-2      1-0  0-2  0-1 2-1   2-0      1-0   2-5 1-1 2-11 2-2 1-13 8-4 1-1MW
Pac 12 14-7 3-0   8-4 1-0 2-0 3-4 2-3 8-1 1-0 2-0 13-6 5-0 3-1 6-1 22-16 6-0 2-4 1-0 4-0 1-0   16-17 3-0 24-21 13-1  20-9 3-1P12
West Coast 1-2    0-1    3-0 0-1  1-0 2-3   1-0  1-0  1-0 0-1    2-2 1-0 9-13 4-8 9-20  1-0WCC
Western Athletic 0-1       0-1                 1-1  0-2 1-1 1-3 0-1 WAC
ACCBigSMEACSoConCUSASLCSWACAACA10BigECAAIvyB10MACOVCSummB12HorMVCAEMAACNEPatASUNSECSBCBigWMWP12WCCWAC

Super-Regionals

ACCBigSCUSAAACA10BigECAAB10MACSummB12MVCAEASUNSECSBCBigWMWP12WCC
Atlantic Coast 12-12 2-0 4-0 2-0 2-0  2-0 4-5  2-0 4-7 2-1  2-0 29-39  3-5  6-5 ACC
Big South 0-2              0-2     BigS
Conference USA 0-4   3-3    0-2   2-1    8-2 2-1   0-2 CUSA
American Athletic 0-2  3-3        1-4    2-7  0-2 1-2  AAC
Atlantic 10 0-2       1-2            A10
Big East                   0-2 BigE
Colonial Athletic 0-2          0-2         CAA
Big 10 5-4  2-0  2-1      0-2 0-2   0-2  1-2  1-4 B10
Mid-American                   2-1 MAC
Summit 0-2                   Summ
Big XII 7-4  1-2 4-1   2-0 2-0   9-9    8-10  0-2  3-5 2-1B12
Missouri Valley 1-2       2-0       1-2  0-2  0-2 MVC
America East               2-1     AE
Atlantic Sun 0-2                   ASUN
Southeastern 39-29 2-0 2-8 7-2    2-0   10-8 2-1 1-2  10-10 5-3 2-5  7-7 SEC
Sun Belt   1-2            3-5     SBC
Big West 5-3   2-0    2-1   2-0 2-0   5-2    7-13 BigW
Mountain West    2-1               2-1 MW
Pac 12 5-6  2-0   2-0  4-1 1-2  5-3 2-0   7-7  13-7 1-2 9-9 P12
West Coast           1-2         WCC
ACCBigSCUSAAACA10BigECAAB10MACSummB12MVCAEASUNSECSBCBigWMWP12WCC

CWS

ACCCUSAAACB10MACB12MVCAESECSBCBigWMWP12
Atlantic Coast 8-8 5-3  1-1  4-5 1-0 1-0 22-21 0-1 4-3 2-2 11-19ACC
Conference USA 3-5     3-2 1-0  1-2   0-1 2-3CUSA
American Athletic    1-0  0-2     0-1  1-1AAC
Big 10 1-1  0-1      0-3  0-1  1-2B10
Mid-American         1-2    MAC
Big XII 5-4 2-3 2-0   3-3   11-11  1-3  6-2B12
Missouri Valley 0-1 0-1           MVC
America East 0-1            0-1AE
Southeastern 21-22 2-1  3-0 2-1 11-11   15-15  5-4 1-2 13-14SEC
Sun Belt 1-0           1-0 0-2SBC
Big West 3-4  1-0 1-0  3-1   4-5  1-1  2-8BigW
Mountain West 2-2 1-0       2-1 0-1   MW
Pac 12 19-11 3-2 1-1 2-1  2-6  1-0 14-13 2-0 8-2  2-2P12
ACCCUSAAACB10MACB12MVCAESECSBCBigWMWP12

© Copyright 2015 Paul Kislanko