2026 NAIA Baseball Preseason Coaches’ Poll
SEWARD, Neb. – The Concordia University, Nebraska Baseball program will begin 2026 where it finished 2025 – ranked No. 16 in the NAIA coaches’ poll. The Bulldogs remained in that slot in the 2026 preseason national poll announced by the NAIA National Office on Wednesday (Nov. 5). Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s program has been included in the top 25 of 13 straight NAIA coaches’ polls, spanning the entire 2024 and 2025 regular seasons. Concordia earned 197 points in the latest poll and is the lone GPAC team to appear in the rankings.
Champions of the 2025 GPAC regular season, the Bulldogs finished the ’25 campaign at 41-13 overall (25-3 GPAC). Concordia qualified for the NAIA National Championship Opening Round and hosted an opening round in Lincoln. The Bulldogs bring back GPAC All-Conference players in Alex Johnson (first team), Jaeden Jordahl (first team), Daiten Schmidt (first team), Bronx Lewis (honorable mention) and Micah Sweeton (honorable mention).
The 2025 Bulldogs peaked at No. 12 in the poll released on April 30. That ranking equaled the ’21 team for the highest national ranking in program history. Other recent Concordia squads that completed seasons with top 25 rankings were the 2023 (24th) and 2024 (18th) teams. Eight-straight Bulldogs squads have at least received votes in the NAIA national poll at some point during their seasons.
The ’25 team extended impressive streaks for the program, which has now won at least 40 games in five-straights seasons (2021 through 2025) and has advanced to the national tournament in six-consecutive seasons. Only five other NAIA baseball programs have also won 40 games in each of the past five years. In 11 seasons at the helm of the program, Dupic owns an overall record of 365-191-1 and has led Concordia to a combined eight GPAC championships and seven national tournament appearances.