LSU Baseball Ranked No. 1 Team in America By USA Today Coaches Preseason Poll

BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU is ranked No. 1 in the 2026 USA Today Baseball Coaches Preseason Poll released Tuesday, representing the Tigers’ fourth Top 2 ranking since last month.

LSU was rated No. 1 by Perfect Game , No. 2 by D1 Baseball and No. 2 by Baseball America in preseason polls released in January.

The 2026 season starts on Friday, February 13, when LSU plays host to Milwaukee at 2 p.m. CT in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.

Head coach Jay Johnson, who has directed the Tigers to the 2023 and 2025 National Championships in his four-season LSU tenure, enters his fifth season with a very talented squad that has 19 returning players and 20 newcomers on its roster.

The reigning National Champions feature seven returning position players with starting experience at LSU, and 10 hurlers who have recorded innings for the Tigers.

The 20-player class of newcomers is composed of eight NCAA Division I transfers, one NCAA Division II transfer, two JUCO transfers and nine high school signees.

LSU Baseball. — Courtesy of LSU Tigers Baseball.

Five LSU rookies have been ranked among the Prep Baseball Report Top 100 College Freshmen, and another six of the Tigers’ newcomers appear on the Baseball America list of the Top 100 College Transfers.

LSU is one of nine Southeastern Conference teams appearing in the USA Today 2026 Preseason Top 25, along with No. 3 Texas, No. 5 Arkansas, No. 6 Mississippi State, No. 9 Auburn, No. 13 Georgia, No. 15 Tennessee, No. 16 Florida and No. 18 Vanderbilt.

The 2026 TV Schedule Notes:

All of LSU’s 2026 baseball games may be viewed live as the Tigers will enjoy tremendous exposure during the season.

See the 2026 schedule with TV/online listings here: 2026 LSU Baseball Schedule

LSU is scheduled to make 12 network TV appearances during the regular season – seven on the SEC Network, three on ESPN2, one on ESPN and one on ESPNU.

In addition, 40 regular-season games will be carried on SEC Network +, the online platform available at SECNetwork.com and the WatchESPN app.

LSU Tigers Baseball: Cooper Moore. — Courtesy of Cooper Moore's Instagram.

D1Baseball.com will stream LSU’s games in the Live Like Lou Jax College Baseball Classic February 20-22 versus Indiana, Notre Dame and UCF. Those three games will be played at VyStar Ballpark in Jacksonville, Fla.

LSU’s game at UL Lafayette on March 4 will appear on ESPN +, the online subscription-based network.

All of the Tigers’ postseason games in the SEC and NCAA Tournaments will be carried on an ESPN network or ESPN online platform.

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