Kevin O'Sullivan says college baseball has 'never been better'

Florida and LSU are set to meet one another on the baseball diamond with the NCAA Championship on the line this weekend. While both teams earned national seeds and hosted regionals and super regionals, the path to the title series wasn’t always as simple as it seemed, especially for a Tiger squad that lost early in pool play in Omaha but rallied back with two emphatic victories over No. 1 overall seed Wake Forest to book their trip to the College World Series Finals against an intra-conference foe. Meanwhile, Florida pulled off the same feat against Texas Tech in their regional

Both of these clubs overcame losses in pool play and had to fend off a bevy of excellent teams along the way. This gauntlet the Gators have had to face has head coach Kevin O’Sullivan saying that he’s never seen the sport so talented from top to bottom, and with MLB-level prospects.

“I think you could say that across the board,” O’Sullivan said of the increased talent level across college baseball. “It isn’t just a Florida/LSU thing. You look at the level of talent throughout college baseball, there’s games you play on Tuesday night all of a sudden you see freshman run out there on the mound in the mid-week game and you’re going, man, I would like to see what this guy looks like in three years.”

There may not be two teams in the country with more raw talent than Florida and LSU, but beyond them, on every roster involved in the NCAA Tournament, there are players who will get their shot at the next level, when maybe that wasn’t the case years and years ago. Kevin O’Sullivan explained:

“It’s across the board. I think the college game is in as good of shape it’s ever been in. I think it’s evolved into — it’s a real developmental piece to move to the next level. And it’s increasingly gotten better and better from that standpoint. But I think college baseball, it’s never been better from a talent standpoint, honestly.”

There may not be two ball clubs with more raw talent than Florida and LSU — hopefully, those stars will be on full display this weekend as the two SEC foes duke it out for the national title. Game 1’s first pitch is currently set for 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. local CT) Saturday evening out in Omaha and aired on ESPN, as will be the other games.