Louisville played its first game in the College World Series last night against Oregon State in Omaha. But the Cinderella team this year is another Kentucky School that goes on the field today. From the CJ:

Bobby Bonilla gets paid more every year to not play baseball ($1.19 million) than Murray State spent on its entire program during the 2023-24 academic year ($858,106, according to information gathered by USA TODAY in conjunction with its partnership with the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database at Syracuse University).

The Racers play in a stadium with a maximum capacity of 800. Head coach Dan Skirka cuts the grass at Johnny Reagan Field himself. The scoreboard’s font is faded and peeling from the unforgiving Kentucky sun. And the outfield wall is in tatters, with yellow-gold padding exposed from years of wear and tear. Just beyond this decaying barrier is a Lowe’s parking lot.

This week, the Racers are traveling to Omaha, Nebraska, for the first Men’s College World Series in program history. They’ll face UCLA (with a baseball budget of $4.19 million) in Game 1 and then tussle with LSU ($9.9 million, third-largest budget in Division I) or Arkansas ($9.16 million, fifth largest) in Game 2.

If the glass slipper fits …

The other seven teams joining Murray State (Missouri Valley Conference) in Omaha have baseball budgets that dwarf the Racers’. Coastal Carolina, also a Group of Five school (Sun Belt Conference), spent $3.9 million on baseball during the 2024 fiscal year. Oregon State spent $4.64 million. Arizona spent $4.89 million. And Louisville, Murray State’s neighbor to the northeast, spent $5.59 million, according to documents obtained by The Courier Journal. 

I’m up for a Murray State/UofL final. Let’s have a Battle of the Bluegrass!