With two weeks to go until the NCAA Tournament selection show, the college baseball field of 64 is still wide open.
This season lacks a clear dominant team the way Tennessee was in 2022 or Wake Forest in 2023. Texas (40-10, 20-7 SEC) is still projected as the No. 1 overall seed, despite back-to-back series losses, because of its two-game lead in the SEC standings as well as a stellar 15-9 Quadrant 1 record.
Six of the top eight projected national seeds this week are from the SEC, with other teams lacking the typical resumes to be a national seed. The list of hosting candidates thins out at the bottom as well. Tennessee (39-13, 15-12 SEC) and TCU (35-16, 17-10 Big 12) get the nods this time over Clemson (38-15, 15-12 ACC); Georgia Tech (37-15, 17-10 ACC) and West Virginia (40-10, 19-6 Big 12).
On the bubble, several mid-major teams are staking their cases. Western Kentucky (41-10, 17-7 Conference USA) and Xavier (30-23, 14-7 Big East) get the nod over Cal Poly (34-16, 20-7 Big West) and Southeastern Louisiana (36-14, 22-8 Southland) due to better RPI and Quadrant 1 and 2 records.
Virginia (30-16, 14-10 ACC) has played its way back into a spot on the bubble. A preseason top-five team, the Cavaliers are just 60th in RPI, but they had a weekend series at Florida State canceled due to a shooting on campus. As such, they receive more leeway in the RPI in this projection, as the RPI would be higher had they faced the Seminoles.
Here is our projected field of 64:
NCAA baseball tournament projected host seedsTexasLSUArkansasVanderbiltAuburnFlorida StateGeorgiaNorth CarolinaCoastal CarolinaAlabamaOregonTCUUC IrvineOregon StateUCLATennessee
2025 NCAA baseball tournament bracket projections
Asterisks denote projected autobid. Projected autobids are given to the current conference leader, with ties broken by RPI.
Seeding is in parentheses.
All projections as of May 12
Last Four In: Arizona State, Western Kentucky, Xavier, Virginia
First Four Out: Cal Poly, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Southeastern Louisiana
Austin Regional
Texas* (1)DukeKansasMissouri State*
Knoxville Regional
Tennessee (16)LouisvilleEast Tennessee State*High Point*
Chapel Hill Regional
North Carolina (8)FloridaUConn*Columbia*
Conway Regional
Coastal Carolina* (9)West Virginia*VirginiaLong Island*
Nashville Regional
Vanderbilt (4)Wake ForestWestern KentuckyTennessee Tech*
Irvine Regional
UC Irvine* (13)Texas-San Antonio*ArizonaNevada*
Auburn Regional
Auburn (5)NC StateKansas StateBryant*
Fort Worth Regional
TCU (12)OklahomaUT Rio Grande Valley*Rhode Island
Tallahassee Regional
Florida State (6)Ole MissStetson*Bethune Cookman*
Eugene Regional
Oregon (11)KentuckyArizona StateMiami-Ohio
Athens Regional
Georgia (7)MiamiTroyFairfield*
Tuscaloosa Regional
Alabama (10)ClemsonNortheastern*Wright State*
Fayetteville Regional
Arkansas (3)Southern MissIowa*Oral Roberts*
Corvallis Regional
Oregon State (14)Dallas BaptistUSCSacramento State
Baton Rouge Regional
LSU (2)Georgia TechCincinnatiHoly Cross*
Irvine Regional
UCLA (15)Mississippi StateXavierSan Diego*
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter, @aria_gerson.