This weekend on Sunday Surmising, it is time to celebrate the College World Series: we hope to follow more college baseball and college hockey in the future now that college basketball and college football have gone to the dogs. We love that Western Michigan won the NCAA hockey championship, and we love shunned schools like Oregon State and small schools like Coastal Carolina and Murray State can win in baseball, too.

We’ve already booked our trip to the Frozen Four next April in Las Vegas, and maybe we will start making a pilgrimage every June to Omaha for the College World Series. With the Beavers and the Chanticleers—both recent baseball champions, of course—already headed to Omaha, we’re hoping the Racers can beat Duke Monday to advance, too,. That would put three serious “underdogs” in the eight-team field for the title chase.

Remember, this is the top priority of the NCAA, as posted on its own website:

“Coordinate and deliver safe, fair and inclusive competition directly and by Association members:

• Set rules and guidelines and provide enforcement.
• Create programs that support outstanding performance on and off the field.
• Deliver excellent and inclusive championships.”

Well, we know this isn’t factual for most revenue-generating sports, but baseball and hockey are fair and inclusive, since the professional leagues exist in the right format (minor leagues for immediate access upon high-school completion). That way, the big schools cannot dominate the way they do in basketball and football, where time and time again the little schools are all but prevented from winning national titles.

Oregon State has a strong baseball tradition, winning three national titles in this century (2006, 2007, 2018). But remember, no one wanted the Beavers in the most recent conference realignment insanity, as the the school remains in the “Pac-X” with Washington State and a handful of newcomers—including small-school basketball power Gonzaga. It is too bad the baseball presence of the Beavers had no takers, really.

As for Coastal Carolina, well … how many readers remember the school’s singular foray into the college football consciousness in 2020? The Chanticleers had a perfect regular season during Covid before losing a bowl game to finish 11-1 with a No. 12 Associated Poll ranking. Perhaps if the 12-team playoff had existed then … but we digress. The school has the 2016 College World Series victory to remember forever … legit.

Murray State usually only enters the college-sports fans’ mind when it’s time to fill out the March Madness brackets. We first remember them from 1988 when they pulled off a first-round upset as a 14-seed team, and every so often, the Racers will do it again. They’re often a popular pick for those upsets, even if they only manage to do it every so often. Still, it’s a reputation worth remembering, and now there’s this chance.

The Racers got to this Super Regional final by beating Mississippi twice as well as Georgia Tech. If they beat the Blue Devils tomorrow, it will be quite the impressive run for a team that nobody thought would get to Omaha. And we love that kind of history-in-the-making narrative, because that’s what we do here. So at 4pm PT on Monday (ESPN), tune in and root for Murray State to make it to Omaha—and be thankful.