Oliver Marburg is a journalism junior and sports reporter for Mustang News. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang Media Group.
Last week, Cal Poly Baseball clinched a berth to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, marking the program’s first back-to-back appearances since 2013-14 and its fifth NCAA Tournament appearance overall. For how successful the Mustangs have been under Head Coach Larry Lee, those numbers don’t look right.
Since Lee took over in 2002, Cal Poly has averaged over 32 wins per season. That figure includes the Mustangs’ 36 wins in 2026, and the season is not yet over.
If it weren’t for the newly instituted Big West Championship tournament, Cal Poly would not have made the postseason this season and would have been on the bubble in 2025.
So why does a sustained winner like Cal Poly constantly have to prove itself over and over again? The answer may have less to do with the Mustangs and more to do with a postseason selection process that continues to undervalue West Coast baseball.
One of the main metrics that the postseason selection committee uses when choosing the field is Ratings Percentage Index (RPI). RPI uses a combination of winning percentage, opponents’ winning percentage, and opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage to gauge how strong a team really is.
In power conferences such as the SEC, teams play an inherently strong schedule due to the depth of the conference and opportunities to rack up “quality wins.” That’s not quite the case on the West Coast.
“It’s very difficult to get a high RPI [out here],” Lee said. “We always play a really strong schedule, but you have to win those games.”
Lee’s choice to play a hard schedule is intentional, but it creates a risk-reward tradeoff. If you play elite teams, you have to win some of those games. If you don’t, the committee will not view your resumé the same as a power conference team and dismiss your high-win total as a result of playing lower competition.
Lee claims that last year’s championship game against UC Irvine was a must-win for the Mustangs, as without the Big West title, Cal Poly did not have enough “quad one” wins to make a strong case.
The Mustangs put their fate in their own hands with a conference title and proved they belong, finishing second in the Eugene Regional in 2025.
With a combined record of 45-15 in the Big West the last two years, Cal Poly has dominated conference play, competing with nationally ranked programs such as UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara. Lee argues that the Big West has depth, but that depth is not always rewarded by the selection process.
He hopes that his players want to play the best competition just as much as he does, and that drive should factor into their decision to come to Cal Poly.
“It’s like a measuring stick, ‘how do I stack up against the best players and the best teams in the country?’” Lee said. “You can probably try to schedule a soft schedule, [but] that’s not going to help your RPI.”
Mid-majors across the country often take a back seat to power conference teams, and it’s rare to see a mid-major conference with two bids to the NCAA Tournament.
“The West Coast, over the last 15 years or so, [has] kind of taken a back seat,” Lee said.
Fewer ranked teams are nearby, travel is expensive and NIL has changed the landscape of college sports, resulting in a denser power concentration.
The selection committee shouldn’t hand mid-major schools like Cal Poly pity bids; they still need to earn it. But when a school has been winning consistently for two decades and doesn’t have the NCAA tournament appearances to show for it, you can’t help but wonder if the process is rewarding the right things.
The Kentucky Wildcats only won two conference series all season long and received an at-large bid to this year’s postseason. Cal Poly only lost one conference series this year, and was one loss away from missing out on a regional berth.
The Mustangs are getting it done when it counts, but they deserve more respect in the college baseball world. Despite the challenges that come with being a modern mid-major program, Cal Poly has once again proved it belongs among the nation’s best, and it has no plans to stop scheduling like it.
