The No. 1 team in the country should be that for a reason. It's the view of a committee that one team is the best in the nation, and thus the most likely to win a championship.
In just nine editions of the College Football Playoff, three of the title winners have been No. 1 seeds. In Men's March Madness history since expanding to 64 teams going back to 1985, 24 of the champions (64 percent) were No. 1 seeds — though there are four No. 1 seeds in each basketball tournament.
Baseball has not had the same type of top-tier dominance in the College World Series. The NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament has had national seeding since 1999, and during that time, rarely does the No. 1 overall seed come away with the national championship.
Wake Forest was to change that trend. The Demon Deacons were the consensus No. 1 team in the nation from mid-May onward and looked dominant in their romp to Omaha.
But to break the curse of the No. 1 seed, the Demon Deacons had to beat No. 5 LSU in the winner-take-all College World Series semifinal matchup. Win, and Wake Forest will be two wins against No. 2 Florida away from a rare win by a top national seed.
Instead, Wake Forest couldn't get the job done, failing to score in a winner-take-all Game 2 and losing on a walk-off two-run homer by Tommy White. As such, they are the latest No. 1 overall seed to fail to win the title in Omaha.
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What is the track record for No. 1 seeds, and which teams have found the most success in Omaha? Here's what you need to know.
College World Series No. 1 seed results
| Year | No. 1 seed | Finish |
| 1999 | Miami | Won championship |
| 2000 | South Carolina | Super regional loss |
| 2001 | Cal State Fullerton | CWS semifinal loss |
| 2002 | Florida State | Super regional loss |
| 2003 | Florida State | Super regional loss |
| 2004 | Texas | CWS final loss |
| 2005 | Tulane | CWS second round loss |
| 2006 | Clemson | CWS second round loss |
| 2007 | Vanderbilt | Regional loss |
| 2008 | Miami | CWS second round loss |
| 2009 | Texas | CWS final loss |
| 2010 | Arizona State | CWS first round loss |
| 2011 | Virginia | CWS semifinal loss |
| 2012 | Florida | CWS first round loss |
| 2013 | North Carolina | CWS semifinal loss |
| 2014 | Oregon State | Regional loss |
| 2015 | UCLA | Regional loss |
| 2016 | Florida | CWS first round loss |
| 2017 | Oregon State | CWS semifinal loss |
| 2018 | Florida | CWS semifinal loss |
| 2019 | UCLA | Super regional loss |
| 2021 | Arkansas | Super regional loss |
| 2022 | Tennessee | Super regional loss |
| 2023 | Wake Forest | CWS semifinal loss |
Back in 1999, Miami entered the first NCAA tournament as the first-ever No. 1 national seed. The Hurricanes did not lose a game during the entirety of the tournament, sweeping through regionals, super regionals and the College Word Series.
Since then, No. 1 national seeds have not only gone title-less, only two have even reached the College World Series final: Texas in 2004 and again in 2009. The Longhorns lost both times, first to Cal State Fullerton and next to LSU.
There have been as many national No. 1 seeds reach the College World Series final since the seeding was installed as teams eliminated in the regionals. Vanderbilt in 2007, Oregon State in 2014 and UCLA in 2015 were each knocked out in the first round of the tournament at their home stadiums.
Wake Forest has already done enough this year to snap a run of three straight tournaments that featured top teams losing in the super regionals. But the Demon Deacons' loss to LSU marks the 12th straight year that the national championship did not feature the pre-tournament top team in the country.
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CWS wins by national seed
| Seed | Championships |
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 3 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 1 |
| 5 | 2 |
| 6 | 0 |
| 7 | 1 |
| 8 | 0 |
| Unranked | 12 |
To date, a majority of the 23 national championships since 1999 have come from unranked teams. That will change in 2023, when one of No. 1 Wake Forest, No. 2 Florida or No. 5 LSU wins the title, which will officially even up the tally at 12 ranked and 12 unranked.
Of the 12 unranked, six were regional hosts. In 2018, the NCAA tournament officially expanded to 16 national seeds instead of the previous eight, which would have meant those six would have counted toward the nationally ranked.
The most common nationally ranked teams to win a title are No. 2 and 3 seeds, with the two each coming away with three titles each. Florida would give No. 2 seeds the most titles with four, while LSU would give No. 5 seeds a tie with three.