The 2021 NCAA Division I baseball season play of

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

in the United States organized by the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

(NCAA) at the Division I level, began on February 19, 2021. The season progressed through the regular season, many conference tournaments and championship series, and concluded with the 2021 NCAA Division I baseball tournament and 2021 College World Series. The College World Series, consisting of the eight remaining teams in the NCAA tournament and held annually in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

, at

TD Ameritrade Park Omaha Charles Schwab Field Omaha (formerly TD Ameritrade Park Omaha) is a baseball park in Omaha, Nebraska. Opened in 2011, the stadium serves as a replacement for historic Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium. Charles Schwab Field has a seating capacity of 24,0 ...

, ended on June 30, 2021. The

Mississippi State Bulldogs Mississippi State Bulldogs is the name given to the athletic teams of Mississippi State University, in Mississippi State, Mississippi. The university is a founding member of the Southeastern Conference and competes in NCAA Division I. Sports sp ...

won the tournament, and were consequently named national champions. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the start of the season was delayed one week, and some teams opted out of playing at all for the 2021 season. The

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

announced on February 18 that no conference competitions would take place, to include conference championships.

Realignment

For 2021 season

* Four schools began transitions from

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

to Division I on July 1, 2020. ** Bellarmine, already a D-I member in men's lacrosse, joined D-I for all other sports as a new member of the

ASUN Conference The ASUN Conference, formerly the Atlantic Sun Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Divisio ...

. ** Dixie State and Tarleton State joined the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

(WAC). **

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

, already a de facto D-I member in men's volleyball and women's water polo (which do not have D-II championship events) as an associate member of the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

, moved the rest of its athletic program to the Big West. * Boise State dropped baseball when the season was canceled after the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

was declared leading to baseball's second elimination because the athletic department's budget was reduced by $3 million. *

Chicago State Chicago State University (CSU) is a predominantly black public university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1867 as the Cook County Normal School, it was an innovative teachers college. Eventually the Chicago Public Schools assumed control of t ...

dropped baseball in June 2020, effective immediately. * Furman announced in May 2020 that the

Paladins The Paladins, also called the Twelve Peers, are twelve legendary knights, the foremost members of Charlemagne's royal court, court in the 8th century. They first appear in the medieval (12th century) ''chanson de geste'' cycle of the Matter of F ...

baseball team would be terminated due to budget concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. * La Salle and North Carolina Central dropped baseball after this season. *

NJIT {{Infobox university , name = {{nowrap, New Jersey Institute of Technology , image = New Jersey IT seal.svg , image_upright = 0.9 , former_names = Newark College of Engineering (1930–1975)Ne ...

moved from the ASUN to the

America East Conference The America East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I founded in 1979, whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference has nine core members including eight public research u ...

. *

Cal State Bakersfield California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB, Cal State Bakersfield, or CSU Bakersfield) is a public university in Bakersfield, California. It was established in 1965 as Kern State College and officially in 1968 as California State College Bake ...

moved from the WAC to the Big West.

Future moves

The following schools changed conferences effective with the 2022 season: * Five schools left the

Southland Conference The Southland Conference, abbreviated as SLC, is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States (specifically Texas and Louisiana). It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it pa ...

. Abilene Christian, Lamar,

Sam Houston Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played an important role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two i ...

, and

Stephen F. Austin Stephen Fuller Austin (November 3, 1793 – December 27, 1836) was an American-born empresario. Known as the "Father of Texas" and the founder of Anglo Texas,Hatch (1999), p. 43. he led the second and, ultimately, the successful colonization ...

joined the WAC, and

Central Arkansas Central Arkansas, also known as the Little Rock metro, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metro area in the U.S. state of ...

joined the ASUN. * The

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern and the Mid-Atlantic United States. It participates in the National C ...

lost three members. Bethune–Cookman and

Florida A&M Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a public historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida. Founded in 1887, It is the third largest historically black university in the U ...

joined the

Southwestern Athletic Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates in t ...

, and

North Carolina A&T North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (also known as North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina A&T, N.C. A&T, or simply A&T) is a public, historically black land-grant research university in Greensboro, North Caro ...

joined the

Big South Conference The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Th ...

. * The

Ohio Valley Conference The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern and Southeastern United States, Southeastern United States. It participates in NCAA Divisi ...

lost

Eastern Kentucky Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways * Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 * Eastern Air ...

and Jacksonville State to the ASUN. *

Northern Colorado Northern Colorado is the name for a region in the state of Colorado and a proposed state in the northeastern portion of Colorado. Region Northern Colorado is a region in the northern portion of Colorado. It borders northwestern Colorado, nort ...

, a WAC baseball associate through the 2021 season, left for single-sport membership in the

Summit League The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States from Illinois on the East of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on the W ...

. * St. Thomas, formerly of

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their stu ...

Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) is a college athletic conference which competes in NCAA Division III. All 13 of the member schools are located in Minnesota and are private institutions, with only two being non-sectarian. ...

, also joined the Summit League after successfully obtaining an NCAA waiver for a direct transition to D-I.

Ballpark changes

* The 2021 season was the first for

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Ha ...

Elliot Ballpark Elliot Ballpark is a baseball stadium on the campus of the University of Connecticut (UConn) in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It is the home field of the UConn Huskies baseball team of NCAA Division I's Big East Conference. The stadium is ...

, replacing J. O. Christian Field. *

Oklahoma State Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

began play in

O'Brate Stadium O'Brate Stadium is a baseball park in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The home field of the Oklahoma State University Cowboys college baseball team, it is named after Cecil O'Brate. It was scheduled to host its first game on March 20, 2020 against TCU. F ...

, replacing

Allie P. Reynolds Stadium Allie P. Reynolds Stadium is a former baseball park in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The home field of the Oklahoma State University Cowboys college baseball team, it was named after former OSU and New York Yankees baseball great Allie Reynolds. History ...

. *

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

began play in

Florida Ballpark Condron Family Ballpark at Alfred A. McKethan Field is the college baseball stadium of the University of Florida, and serves as the home field for the Florida Gators baseball team. Condron Ballpark is located on the university's Gainesville, ...

, replacing Alfred A. McKethan Stadium. *

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

began play in

Tal Anderson Field Tal Anderson Field is a baseball park located in Omaha, Nebraska. It is the home field of the Omaha Mavericks of the NCAA Division I Summit League. Opened in 2021, the park is located in Omaha's Midtown Omaha Midtown is a geographic area of ...

, replacing

J. J. Isaacson Field at Seymour Smith Park J. J. Isaacson Field at Seymour Smith Park is a 1,000-seat baseball park in Omaha, Nebraska. It was home to the Omaha Mavericks baseball team of the NCAA Division I Summit League. The venue has a capacity of 1,000 spectators. History The ballp ...

Season outlook

Conference standings

Conference winners and tournaments

Of the 32 Division I all-sports

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Confe ...

s, 31 sponsor baseball, with the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eigh ...

the only exception. All but one of these conferences played in the 2021 season; the

opted out of the season due to COVID-19 concerns. Several conferences canceled or modified their conference tournaments for 2021, with the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

, Mid-American,

Mountain West The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

and

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

joining the

Big West The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

and

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

in forgoing a tournament to end the regular season. For those conferences holding a tournament, the teams in each conference that won their regular season title were given the top seeds in each tournament. The winners of these tournaments received automatic invitations to the 2021 NCAA Division I baseball tournament. Conferences that do not hold a tournament award their automatic bids to the regular-season champion.

Coaching changes

This table lists programs that changed head coaches at any point from the first day of the 2021 season until the day before the first day of the 2022 season.

References

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