The 2024 Mississippi State baseball season keeps getting closer to starting and the 2021 College World Series championship seems further and further away. The Bulldogs have notably struggled over the past couple seasons and now Chris Lemonis and his Mississippi State baseball team are trying to prove that they can still contend at a high level.
But, well, there's going to be a lot of skepticism from folks outside of Starkville about whether or not the Bulldogs are ready to go toe-to-toe with prominent programs.
Take the latest Perfect Game USA rankings, for example.
That's right, we're in January and the college baseball season is just weeks away. And that means that there are indeed recent college baseball rankings. Preseason rankings, in fact. And they're not "way too early" preseason rankings.
This provides the perfect moment for some trash talk and healthy debate and the time for some self-reflection on how the Bulldogs are ranked right now.
Mississippi State baseball nowhere to be found in 2024 college baseball top 25 preseason rankings
Here's what the 2024 college baseball preseason top 25 from Perfect Game USA looks like:
- Wake Forest Demon Deacons
- Arkansas Razorbacks
- LSU Tigers
- Florida Gators
- TCU Horned Frogs
- Vanderbilt Commodores
- Texas A&M Aggies
- Texas Longhorns
- Oregon State Beavers
- Virginia Cavaliers
- Tennessee Volunteers
- Stanford Cardinal
- South Carolina Gamecocks
- North Carolina Tar Heels
- Auburn Tigers
- Iowa Hawkeyes
- East Carolina Pirates
- UCLA Bruins
- NC State Wolfpack
- Kansas State Wildcats
- Clemson Tigers
- Oklahoma State Cowboys
- Duke Blue Devils
- UC Santa Barbara Gauchos
- Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
It kinda makes sense that the Mississippi State Bulldogs aren't ranked. It kinda makes a lot of sense. In fact, it really wouldn't make much sense to see MSU ranked right now. Sure, the Bulldogs have a lot of talent, but a lot of talent didn't get MSU anywhere over the past couple seasons.
But Lemonis and the Bulldogs will have plenty of opportunities to prove themselves over the season as they try to navigate a tricky schedule laden with a ton of top teams. The SEC has eight teams that are ranked in Perfect Game's top 16 teams.
This season is going to tell us a lot about how good this team and its coach really are.