BATON ROUGE — LSU is No. 1 on the Yahoo Sports list of colleges with the best baseball and football program combination.
The Tigers have won a pair of baseball national titles this decade (2000, 2009), and the football program has captured two titles in the past six seasons (2003, 2007).
Other SEC representatives on the Yahoo Sports list include Florida, Georgia and Ole Miss.
“We’re certainly pleased to receive this type of recognition,” said LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri, “and we’re especially honored to be mentioned with the LSU football program. Coach (Les) Miles and his staff do a tremendous job, and they are a great credit to our university and the entire state of Louisiana.”
Mainieri noted the strong relationship between the LSU baseball and football programs, as two-sport stars Jared Mitchell (wide receiver/outfielder) and Chad Jones (free safety/left-handed pitcher) contributed both to the football title in 2007 and to the baseball championship in 2009.
“Coach Miles has been very gracious in allowing Jared and Chad to participate in both sports,” Mainieri said, “and we sincerely appreciate his cooperation. Those players were certainly vital to us in our drive to the national championship.”
Close behind LSU on the Yahoo Sports list is Texas. The Longhorns played for the national title last season ? dropping two of three games to LSU in the College World Series Finals — and last won a baseball title in 2005. The Texas football program also won a national title in 2005.
Oklahoma has experienced success in both sports and joins Texas as a Big XII representative on the list. ACC representatives Miami, Georgia Tech, Florida State and Clemson round out the top 10.
Following is the Yahoo Sports’ comments on LSU’s football and baseball programs:
1. LSU. It doesn’t get better than LSU when it comes to the baseball and football programs. The Tigers won their sixth national title on the diamond with a series win over Texas last season. The football Tigers have won a pair of national titles this decade. The last national title was in ’07. In addition to their success on the field in both sports, the Tigers also have the luxury of playing in Tiger Stadium in football and Alex Box Stadium in baseball. LSU fans also are as loyal as they can come. LSU can take pride in being the best baseball-football college.
Read the full listing on Yahoo.com.