Oddsmaker gives nod to defending national champion Tennessee Vols over top seed Vanderbilt Commodore to win College World Series

I find that to be pretty wonky, given A) the path for both teams to Omaha and B) the way both teams are playing right now.  Vanderbilt has a navigable regional at home, and as the #1 overall seed, they would host the winner of the Hattiesburg regional, where #16 Southern Miss is hosting. That's a relatively smooth path to the College World Series.  

Meanwhile, Tennessee gets to host as the 14 seed, but if they win, they most likely will have to go to Arkansas and take two out of three from the Hogs - something they weren't able to do earlier this month.  Tennessee also has been struggling over the last two months, losing 6 of 7 series to end the regular season.  While they bounced back with two big wins in Hoover, they lost convincingly 10-0 to Vandy in 7 innings by run rule to end their tournament. 

Tennessee also proved last year that the top seed indeed can win it all.  Tennessee became the first #1 overall seed to win the tournament since the Miami Hurricanes accomplished the same feat back in 1999.  

We'll see soon enough if the Vols can get on a heater and make a serious run at repeating their championship.  While it might not seem too likely, at last one oddsmaker says don't count out that possibility.