GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida received six of seven votes from the D1Baseball staff as college baseball's best program of the last 10 years while Head Coach
Kevin O'Sullivan paced all skippers with three votes as the sport's top coach of the decade.
Celebrating 10 years of coverage after launching as a full-service college baseball site in 2015, D1Baseball unveiled its "best of the decade" on Wednesday. Included in the staff picks were votes for the best team, player, pitcher, coach and program of the last 10 years. Florida ran away with each of the latter two categories, defeating Vanderbilt as the best program of the decade by a seven-to-one tally. Aaron Fitt, Kendall Rogers and Mark Etheridge each selected O'Sullivan as the top head coach of the last 10 years while no other skipper earned more than one vote.
Florida has reached the College World Series in nine of the last 14 postseasons, which includes six Omaha trips in the last decade alone (no postseason in 2020). No other program in the country is close to those numbers.
In the last 10 years, the Gators have hosted eight Regionals while claiming one National Championship (2017), one National Runner-Up finish (2023) and five appearances in the CWS final four. Under O'Sullivan, Florida has evolved into the premier program in all of college baseball.
Best Program of the Last 10 Years
Aaron Fitt: Florida
Kendall Rogers: Florida
Patrick Ebert: Florida
Mike Rooney: Florida
Mark Etheridge: Florida
Eric Sorenson: Vanderbilt
Shotgun Spratling: Florida
What They're Saying About the Gators…
Aaron Fitt: "
Florida and Vanderbilt flip-flopped back and forth in the No. 1 spot in our biennial program rankings over the last decade, but this 10-year sample (2015-2024) starts just after Vanderbilt won its first national title, which means the Commodores and Gators each have one championship apiece in the decade. That extra title was Vandy's trump card during some of our previous Top 100 Program debates, but without that ace in the hole, the nod goes to Florida, which has six CWS runs, five final four appearances and one runner-up appearance in addition to its 2017 national title. That's an absurd degree of elite performance over a 10-year span."
Patrick Ebert: "A couple of years ago I probably would have named Vanderbilt as the best program in all of college baseball, but while the Commodores haven't made a CWS appearance since 2021, their fifth in program history, Florida has made six trips to Omaha in the past 10 seasons, including each of the past two years. What has been especially impressive to me is just how good the Gators are in the postseason; they won in the super regional round in each of the six years they advanced that far with their championship in 2017, a runner-up finish in 2023 and three semifinal finishes. Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan knows, more than anyone else, what it means to be a winner."
Mark Etheridge: "Since 2015, there have been nine College World Series and Florida has been a part of six of them, with five final fours, two CWS Finals, and a title. No program has sustained excellence to that degree."
Best Coach of the Last 10 Years
Aaron Fitt:
Kevin O'Sullivan, Florida
Kendall Rogers:
Kevin O'Sullivan, Florida
Patrick Ebert: Tony Vitello, Tennessee
Mike Rooney: Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt
Mark Etheridge:
Kevin O'Sullivan, Florida
Joe Healy: Jay Johnson, Arizona/LSU
Eric Sorenson: Brett Boretti, Columbia
Shotgun Spratling: David Esquer, Stanford
What They're Saying About HC Kevin O'Sullivan…
Aaron Fitt: "
I thought about splitting my ticket to spread the love, but I can't get past Florida's resumé. Kevin O'Sullivan's program is a model of consistent excellence (more on that below). His track record for recruiting and developing elite talent is ridiculous, and the results on the field reflect those skills. He gets my vote."
Mark Etheridge: "
Kevin O'Sullivan's Florida has made six College World Series appearances in the last 10 seasons, with eight hosts, a title, and a finals appearance. That kind of consistency is unmatched."
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