Georgia’s Daniel Jackson wins rare 2026 SEC regular-season Triple Crown, named Player of the Year

Daniel Jackson, a junior catcher at Georgia, won the 2026 SEC regular-season Triple Crown, a rare feat awarded to the player who leads the conference in batting average, home runs and RBIs. According to NCAA.com’s May 21 report and a Georgia athletics release published May 18, Jackson finished the regular season at .394 with 27 home runs and 77 RBIs, all SEC-leading totals.

Jackson also was named the 2026 SEC Player of the Year, according to Georgia athletics. Separately, NCAA.com and Georgia athletics said he became just the sixth player in Division I baseball history to record 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases in the same season, and the first catcher to do it. Georgia’s release said Jackson, who is from Sandy Springs, Georgia, was 25 for 26 on stolen-base attempts.

His individual season helped power Georgia to the SEC regular-season championship. The Bulldogs finished the regular season 43-12 overall and 23-7 in conference play, a mark Georgia said set a school record in SEC games. Georgia coach Wes Johnson was named SEC Coach of the Year.

The conference history adds to the significance of Jackson’s accomplishment. NCAA.com reported that the only previous SEC regular-season Triple Crown winners were Mississippi State’s Rafael Palmeiro in 1984 and Mississippi State’s Brent Rooker in 2017. That makes Jackson the third reported player to win the SEC regular-season Triple Crown.

The SEC is widely regarded as one of college baseball’s strongest conferences, making a regular-season sweep of those three offensive categories especially uncommon. Jackson’s season stood out further because he produced that power-speed combination while playing catcher, a position not usually associated with a 25-homer, 25-steal year.

To be clear, the national-history claim cited by NCAA.com and Georgia athletics is tied to Jackson’s 25-home run, 25-stolen base season and his status as the first catcher to reach that mark, not to the SEC Triple Crown itself.