Why It's a Good Thing Tennessee Baseball Lost in the Super Regionals

Why it's a good thing Tennessee lost to Arkansas in the Super Regionals.

The Tennessee Volunteers had their baseball season come to an end on Sunday against the Arkansas Razorbacks in the Super Regionals. The Volunteers were seeking their second straight national title, having won it the previous season. But while the program would much rather still be playing in the postseason, it might be a good thing that Tennessee lost to Arkansas.

Following the close of conference championship brackets, the transfer portal opened up for college baseball players. Since then, a large number of players have entered their names into the portal, and some have already announced their commitments. Now with the season over, Tennessee will be able to get into the mix.

That's not to say that Tennessee has not utilized the portal in previous years. In fact, Andrew Fischer and Liam Doyle were both portal acquisitions from a year ago and they were arguably the two best players on the team this year. However, this year, they will be able to get a head start on their portal action.

The last two years, Tennessee's season didn't end until the College World Series. Meaning they were one of the last teams to get into the mix on the portal. Head coach Tony Vitello and his staff have always recruited at a high rate, so any sort of edge they can gain is a positive one.

This isn't to say that recruiting the transfer portal is more important than winning a title. The Volunteers would happily trade another title for a top-ranked transfer portal class. But if a silver lining were to exist, this would probably be it.