No. 17 Ole Miss baseball won its season finale series over Auburn this past weekend to earn a bye in the SEC Tournament where analysts believe it needs one or two wins to earn a NCAA hosting spot.

D1Baseball’s latest NCAA projection puts the Rebels as a 2-seed in the Hattiesburg Regional. The Golden Eagles are projected as the No. 14 national seed putting Ole Miss squarely on the hosting bubble.

Now, the Rebels (37-18, 16-14 SEC) needed to win two out of three against Auburn last weekend for this to even be a possibility. With that job done, analysts are now leaning that a win or two in the SEC Baseball Tournament should be enough to move Ole Miss into the top 16 nationally.

It seems like damn 15 years since the Rebels hosted a regional, and fans in my opinion expect the program to host every year or at the very least be in contention to host. Ole Miss will have a bye in Hoover, Ala. today (Tuesday) and await either 10-seed Florida or 15-seed South Carolina.

The Rebels took two of three from Florida in a series in Oxford early in the season while the Gamecocks won a series over Ole Miss in Columbia about a month ago.

Thinking through it, a win over Florida clearly holds more value at this point. It’s likely 12 teams from the SEC will make the NCAA Tournament, so it would be a win over a tournament team and the Rebels 18th win over an SEC team including a non-conference Governor’s Cup win over Miss. St.

If the Rebels do have to face Sakerlina, a win doesn’t do nearly as much for the resume though a loss would be the end of this conversation.

Either way, a win moves Ole Miss on to face 2-seed Arkansas who is a very likely top eight national seed. Now here is the enormous opportunity for the Rebels – a win against the Hogs would in all realms and dimensions of the universe lock a hosting spot.

So a lot of baseball to be played clearly, and the Rebels have at least some momentum on its side coming out of the Auburn weekend. It needs the wins, which can cause some players (and coaches) to press and get weird.

The SEC Baseball Tournament will kickoff Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. with Missouri and Alabama opening up play. Ole Miss will face either Florida or Sakerlina on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. CT.