College World Series 2021: 1st-Round Tournament Schedule and Title Predictions

College baseball fans won't need to wait long to realize how much they've missed the College World Series.

The event is back to take over Omaha, Nebraska, after losing the 2020 iteration to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it could deliver one instant classic game after the next.

NC State, which opened ACC play with a 1-8 start, has wiggled out of more tight situations than an action hero. No. 9 Stanford just blasted No. 8 Texas Tech on its home turf in the super regionals. Those teams will tussle in the CWS opener, and that's not even the marquee matchup on Saturday's slate.

That distinction goes to the bout between No. 5 Arizona and No. 4 Vanderbilt, which is set up to be the proverbial clash of the unstoppable force and the immovable object. The Wildcats lead the nation with 526 runs scored. The Commodores, powered by the elite starting pitcher combo of Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter, rank second in strikeouts per nine innings and sixth in ERA.

Anyone else's mouth watering yet?

This entire tournament tantalizes, so let's lay out the pertinent scheduling information (all times ET) and then make some predictions for what lies ahead.

Tournament Schedule

Saturday, June 19

Game 1: NC State vs. No. 9 Stanford, 2 p.m. (ESPN)

Game 2: No. 5 Arizona vs. No. 4 Vanderbilt, 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Sunday, June 20

Game 3: Virginia vs. No. 3 Tennessee, 2 p.m. (ESPN2)

Game 4: No. 2 Texas vs. No. 7 Mississippi State, 7 p.m.

Monday, June 21

Game 5: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 2 p.m. (ESPNU)

Game 6: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Tuesday, June 22

Game 7: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser, 2 p.m. (ESPNU)

Game 8: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Wednesday, June 23

Game 9: 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Thursday, June 24

Game 10: 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

Friday, June 25

Game 11: 2 p.m. (ESPN2)

Game 12: 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Saturday, June 26

Game 13: If necessary, 2 p.m. (ESPN2)

Game 14: If necessary, 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Monday, June 28

CWS Finals Game 1: 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

Tuesday, June 29

Game 2: 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Wednesday, June 30

Game 3: If necessary, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

Title Predictions

Baseball is not the easiest sport to predict.

Perhaps you may have noticed, but the nation's No. 1 team is not in this field. That would be the Arkansas Razorbacks, who were unbeatable—until they weren't. Despite opening their super regional with a 21-2 drubbing of NC State, they dropped back-to-back games to the Wolfpack, and just like that their season was finished.

That means for the 21st tournament in a row, a No. 1 seed will not win the title.

But you came here for predictions, so predictions we shall deliver—in process of elimination style.

Mississippi State has a bunch of good players, but its lack of a high-end starting pitcher feels like a fatal flaw, so the Bulldogs are out. Stanford looked electric in the super regionals, but it opens against an NC State team that refuses to die and then could draw the Arizona-Vanderbilt loser in a win-or-go-home matchup. That's where our crystal ball has the Cardinal exiting.

Tennessee has some absolute mashers (no CWS qualifier hit more home runs), but it doesn't have the pitchers to deliver if the bats go quiet. NC State only has so many tricks up its sleeve, and this many flirtations with disaster will eventually come back to bite it. Two more teams down.

Arizona can mash, but the Wildcats don't have a starting pitcher with a sub-4.00 ERA. That doesn't seem like a winning formula. The Cavaliers have a .583 winning percentage this season; the Wolfpack are the next lowest at .660. Virginia can only mask the talent gap for so long.

And then there were two.

The Longhorns might be the best team in this field—they're the highest-ranked, at least—and their pitching depth is next-level. Texas has a team ERA of 2.89. That's not only the best in this field; it's the best in the country by a healthy margin. No other team has a sub-3.00 ERA (or a sub-3.10, for that matter).

What the Longhorns don't have, though, is one of the two best pitchers in this tournament. Both play for the Commodores, who are the defending champs since the 2020 tournament didn't happen.

Rocker and Leiter are as good as it gets at this level. The former is 13-3 with a 2.46 ERA and 155 strikeouts and 36 walks in 106 innings. The latter is 10-3 with a 2.16 ERA and 156 punchouts against 41 free passes in 96 innings. Those are mind-boggling numbers.

In fact, they look like championship-winning numbers. Give us Vanderbilt over Texas in the finals.