Tennessee baseball begins its NCAA Tournament run on Friday night when they face Miami (Ohio) in its opening game of the Knoxville Regional at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The Vols are the No. 14 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and a regional host but the oddsmakers in the desert are much higher Tennessee. FanDuel Sportsbook has Tennessee +1200 to win the 2025 College World Series, tying them for the sixth best odds to win the national championship.
Arkansas (+470), LSU (+600), Vanderbilt (+650), Texas (+1000) and North Carolina (+1000) all have better odds to win the national championship. Georgia, like Tennessee, is +1200 to hoist the championship trophy in Omaha in late June.
Tennessee has better odds to win the national title then No. 4 overall seed Auburn (+1900), No. 8 overall seed Oregon State (+4000) and No. 10 overall seed Ole Miss (+3700).
The Vols earned the No. 14 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament after posting a 43-16 (16-14 SEC) record. Tennessee started the season red-hot before fizzling out in SEC play, dropping six of its final seven series entering the postseason.
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Tony Vitello’s eighth Tennessee team entered the SEC Tournament on the outside looking in of the hosting conversation. But the Vols went 2-1 in Hoover with wins over Alabama and SEC Regular-Season Champion Texas before falling to Vanderbilt in the semifinals. Those two quality wins were good enough for Tennessee to move back into a host position.
Despite its struggles down the stretch of the season, Tennessee is still a talented team capable of making a deep run. The betting odds back up that sentiment.
The Vols are hosting Wake Forest, Cincinatti and Miami (Ohio) in the Knoxville Regional. If Tennessee wins a regional for the fifth straight time then they’ll advance to super regionals to face the winner of the Fayetteville Regional. If host Arkansas, the betting favorites to win the national championship, makes it out of its own regional then the Vols will travel to the Natural State to face the Razorbacks in super regional.
Tennessee is the defending national champions, earning its first in program history last season. Since COVID, no defending national champion has made it out of a regional let alone make it all the way to Omaha and the College World Series.
First pitch between Tennessee and Miami (Ohio) is at 6 p.m. ET on Friday night. ESPN+ is streaming the game.
