A more democratic sport

Five of the final 16 teams in the NCAA baseball tournament are from non-power conferences. And since Long Beach State plays Fullerton, we are guaranteed that at least one of them will make the College World Series. And, of course, our own Coastal Carolina Chanticleers are the reigning national champs, at the time they won from a conference even further down the list than ours. Baseball just has a way of making things equal, since it frequently does literally depend on "how the ball  bounces."