College World Series Still Riding High Despite Just Missing Records

The men’s College World Series kept up most of the momentum it’s seen off the field in the past few years, but it wasn’t able to set any major new records as Tennessee won its first NCAA baseball championship, defeating Texas A&M in a three-game series.

After three consecutive years of record attendance, as well as a huge viewership spike last year, this month’s games in Omaha came up just short of setting new marks. Total attendance was 371,820, just under the 392,946 fans who made it to games at Charles Schwab Field in 2023, despite a new average game attendance record of 24,788.

Organizers were perhaps a little unlucky, as there were 12 games in the main bracket before the final series, as opposed to 13 last year, due to one less “if necessary” game.

Viewership on ESPN platforms averaged 1.56 million, down from last year’s all-time high of 1.65 million. The three-game Tennessee–Texas A&M final averaged 2.82 million viewers, just below the record 2.86 million for LSU-Florida in 2023. The winner-take-all Game 3 averaged 3.34 million, which is the second-largest CWS audience on ESPN behind the 3.59 million for Game 3 in last year’s final.

Seen and Heard 

The Volunteers had plenty of star-studded support as they were crowned champions. Spotted at the final game in Omaha were noted alum Peyton Manning and country music sensation Morgan Wallen, as well as fellow Tennessee coaches Josh Heupel (football) and Rick Barnes (basketball).