The Baseball America rankings dropped, and I am not here to pretend this is some neutral spreadsheet exercise. LSU and Tennessee just seized the transfer portal like it owed them money, and the rest of college baseball is still filing paperwork while these two programs reloaded for war.
I watched LSU win a national championship in 2025. Then I watched that same program stagger to 30-28 overall and 9-21 in the SEC, missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011. That is not a soft landing. That is a free fall. Jay Johnson did not hold a listening tour. He did not talk about culture resets and gradual climbs. He opened the portal and raided it.
Eight transfers. All of them inside the 64Analytics top 250. When ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranked the top 60 portal talents by pro potential, LSU owned his fifth-, eighth-, 10th-, 27th-, and 60th-ranked players, with only one commit outside that list. McDaniel put it plainly: “LSU similarly is shooting for the stars.” He was not wrong. He was understating it.
Landon Hood came over from Gonzaga with a 2.48 ERA and 78 strikeouts in 54.1 innings as a freshman. Bino Watters hit .362 with 10 homers and a 1.057 OPS at Notre Dame. Dawson Park mashed 13 homers at Texas State. Angel Laya posted a .934 OPS with 14 bombs as a freshman at Oregon. This is not depth. This is a statement of intent written in impact bats and arms.
Tennessee Did Not Ask Permission Either
Josh Elander did not sit back and applaud the Tigers. Tennessee landed an 11-player class. Eight of those eleven cracked the 64Analytics top 250. By mid-July the Vols sat No. 3 nationally in those rankings, right behind Georgia and LSU, and the haul looks built to pitch deep into June.
Brody Trosclair arrived from Northwestern State with a 1.89 ERA, 55 strikeouts against 11 walks in 38 innings, and a Southland Pitcher of the Year trophy. Jake McCoy left South Carolina after getting picked in the 18th round by the Blue Jays and chose Rocky Top instead. Chris Ramirez hit .389 with 22 doubles and 21 steals at Cal Baptist. Ricky Ojeda, Braydon Kersey, Travis Sanders. This is volume and quality stacked on the same roster.
On3 and Baseball America kept putting Tennessee names near the top of individual boards all summer. The Vols did not win the portal by accident. They won it by treating every open roster spot like a chance to upgrade the standard.
This Is Not Balance. This Is Ambition.
I keep hearing the same exhausted complaint. The portal ruined competitive balance. The blue bloods just buy better failures. Spare me. LSU finished last season buried in the SEC standings after cutting down the nets the year before. That is the sport working exactly as designed. What Johnson and Elander did next is what separates programs that protect legacies from programs that rent them.
64Analytics had LSU at No. 1 after the Angel Laya addition and called the projected lineup “Ridiculous.” That word fits. South Carolina, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi State, and Georgia all made noise. None of them matched the combined violence of these two hauls. McDaniel put South Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, TCU, and Oklahoma in his baker’s dozen for total pro prospect value. Fine. LSU still sat at the head of the table.
I have covered enough roster cycles to know the difference between activity and aggression. Activity is flipping a couple of role players and hoping the freshmen hit. Aggression is what LSU did after a 9-21 conference mark. Aggression is what Tennessee did by stacking eleven new pieces while the rest of the country debated fairness.
The portal closed. The draft came and went. The noise cooled. What remains is simple. Two SEC programs looked at a broken or unfinished roster and decided the answer was excellence, not excuses. Hood, Watters, Park, Laya, Trosclair, McCoy, Ramirez. Those names do not rebuild quietly. They walk into Alex Box and Lindsey Nelson and demand that last season becomes a footnote.
Jay Johnson already has a title on his résumé. Josh Elander is building toward one. The rankings crowned them because the work was undeniable. Everybody else can keep complaining about the system. These two just used it to put the league on notice.
