2026 Northwestern baseball post-mortem: what went so wrong?
Mediocrity in multiple areas plagued the ‘Cats this year.
In my inaugural column for the 2026 season , I wrote, “This year could be one of the more consequential in recent Northwestern baseball history. ” Unfortunately, I agree with my March self. I say this unfortunately because after wrapping the season with a series loss at Rutgers, the Wildcats have officially finished dead last in the Big Ten standings in 2026.
At risk of sounding vain, I will quote myself one last time. When I stated that fans “… will look back at 2026 as a true pivot year for the program: the affirmation of competency or the confirmation of a mediocre destiny. ” I continued, “My prediction is the former.
” No need to mince words: I was terribly wrong. What explains the precipitous fall back down to the Big Ten’s basement after such a hopeful 2025 season? Or, were those 2025 improvements merely flukes?
In other words, is this 2026 disappointment the norm moving forward in Ben Greenspan’s tenure at the helm? While it’s hard to say for sure, the dream of some drastic improvement in 2027 is far-fetched to say the least. From a production standpoint, the outlook is somewhat bleak.
Continue to the original source for the full article.