2023 College World Series baseball odds, trends: Top-seeded Wake Forest favored, but No. 5 LSU taking heaviest betting action to win title in Omaha

Entering college baseball's 2023 postseason two weekends ago, ACC regular-season champion Wake Forest was the +400 favorite to win its first national title since 1995. The NCAA No. 1 overall top-seeded Demon Deacons had no trouble in the regional or super regional rounds, and are now +250 favorites at BetMGM to win the College World Series – but No. 5 seed LSU (+375) is taking the most action at the book. The eight-team event begins Friday in Omaha.

Wake Forest (52-10) enters the CWS fresh off a 22-5 obliteration of No. 16 Alabama last Sunday to win the Winston-Salem Super Regional and advance to the school's third-ever College World Series appearance, and its first since capturing the program's lone national championship in 1955. The Deacons hit a whopping nine home runs in the win over the Crimson Tide and totaled 27 runs in the two games against Alabama. In the previous round, Wake Forest won its three games (vs. Maryland and George Mason) by a combined score of 48-7. If you aren't familiar with college baseball, the games often take forever because there's so much scoring, thanks mostly to the metal bats.

The Deacons are the first team since LSU in 1997 to have won four tournament games by double digits. Likely 2023 MLB first-round pick Brock Wilken had three homers in the clinching win over Alabama. He has 30 for the season and an ACC-record 70 in his career. Coach Tom Walter's club has broken the program record for regular season wins, ACC wins, ACC series wins and overall wins this season. It opens the CWS on Saturday afternoon vs. No. 8 Stanford.

"We've had high expectations all year -- No. 2 ranked, No. 1 ranked," Walter said. "The higher the expectations got, the more these guys showed up."

In terms of future MLB talent, LSU is the most loaded team in the nation. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel recently compared the future pros on LSU to current farm systems in the majors and he ranked LSU better than the entire farm systems of six clubs: the Mets, Tigers, Angels, Royals, Astros and Braves. The top two players taken in the 2023 draft very easily could be outfielder Dylan Crews and right-hander pitcher Paul Skenes.

If Crews doesn't go No. 1 to Pittsburgh next month, it's an upset and probably because of his singing bonus demands. Crews, the 2023 SEC Player of the Year, is No. 2 in the nation in on-base percentage (.576), No. 2 in runs scored (89), No. 3 in batting average (.434) and No. 3 in walks (65).

It was Skenes, though, who was named Thursday as the winner of the 2023 Dick Howser Trophy, given annually to the most outstanding player in NCAA Division I baseball. The only other LSU player to win it was Eddy Furniss in 1998. Skenes, Collegiate Baseball's 2023 National Player of the Year and the 2023 SEC Pitcher of the Year, leads the nation in strikeouts (188), strikeouts per nine innings (15.81) and WHIP (0.78), and he is No. 2 in ERA (1.77). Crews, Skenes third baseman Tommy White were named 2023 First-Team All-Americans by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

Under second-year coach Jay Johnson, LSU (48-15) is in the CWS for the 19th time and advanced with back-to-back home blowouts last weekend over No. 12 Kentucky. It's the first trip to Omaha for the Tigers since 2017, when they finished as national runners-up. LSU has six College World Series titles, which ranks second all-time behind USC's 12.

At BetMGM, 31% of the bets (most) and 34% of the money (most) are on LSU to win a seventh title.

The Tigers open play Saturday night against unseeded Tennessee. The losing teams of Saturday's two games will play Monday afternoon and Saturday's two winners on Monday night. The action begins Friday with Oral Roberts (in its first CWS since 1978) vs. TCU, and No. 7 Virginia vs. No. 2 Florida.

Odds to win 2023 College World Series

• Wake Forest +250
• LSU +375
• Florida +400
• Virginia +600
• Tennessee +800
• TCU +800
• Stanford +1300
• Oral Roberts +2500

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