The regular season is over and the postseason is approaching in college baseball. Some conference tournaments are already underway, but the majority will begin this week ahead of selection day May 26.
One potential bid thief has already occurred as top seeds Southeastern Louisiana and UT-Rio Grande Valley were eliminated from the Southland Conference tournament. This projection has the Vaqueros as one of the last four teams in. Columbia has clinched an automatic bid as the Ivy League tournament champion.
The SEC is likely to dominate the national seeds and hosting conversation. As many as six SEC teams could get national seeds, with Auburn (38-17, 17-13 SEC) getting the nod here due to the No. 2 RPI and No. 1 strength of schedule.
Beyond the top eight, several other teams also have hosting cases. Alabama (40-15, 16-14 SEC) has the best RPI of the group at No. 9, while Ole Miss (37-18, 16-14 SEC) has 16 Quadrant 1 wins, the second-most in the country.
Tennessee (41-15, 16-14 SEC) and Florida (37-19, 15-15 SEC) are on the periphery of the discussion but are behind the other two here due to the Vols’ No. 216 nonconference strength of schedule and the Gators’ poor performance against good teams (they are 17-18 against Quadrant 1 and 2, the only team in the top 25 of RPI to be below .500 in the top two quads).
On the bubble, Virginia (32-17, 16-11 ACC) and Oklahoma State (27-22, 15-12 Big 12) may have played their way back into the tournament after being left for dead midseason. Both played only 27 conference games, so the committee must decide how to handle the missing contests.
Here is our projected field of 64:
NCAA baseball tournament projected host seedsTexasArkansasVanderbiltNorth CarolinaLSUGeorgiaCoastal CarolinaAuburnOregonClemsonOregon StateFlorida StateAlabamaGeorgia TechTCUOle Miss2025 NCAA baseball tournament bracket projections
Asterisks denote projected automatic bids. Projected autobids are given to the highest remaining seed in each conference’s tournament.
Seeding is in parentheses.
All projections as of May 18
Last Four In: Oklahoma State, Kentucky, Virginia, UT Rio Grande Valley
First Four Out: Notre Dame, Xavier, Western Kentucky, Cal Poly
Austin Regional
Texas* (1)UTSA*Southern CalNevada
Oxford Regional
Ole Miss (16)Southern MissKansas StateBryant*
Auburn Regional
Auburn (8)Northeastern*VirginiaColumbia*
Eugene Regional
Oregon* (9)UC IrvineArizona StateSacramento State
Chapel Hill Regional
North Carolina (4)TennesseeOklahoma StateMiami-Ohio*
Tuscaloosa Regional
Alabama (13)Dallas BaptistDukeLong Island
Baton Rouge Regional
LSU (5)NC StateTroyHoly Cross*
Tallahassee Regional
Florida State (12)FloridaRhode Island*Bethune Cookman*
Athens Regional
Georgia (6)LouisvilleUConnWright State*
Corvallis Regional
Oregon State (11)UCLAArizonaSan Diego*
Conway Regional
Coastal Carolina* (7)MiamiKentuckyRider*
Clemson Regional
Clemson (10)West VirginiaEast Tennessee State*South Carolina-Upstate*
Nashville Regional
Vanderbilt (3)Wake ForestCincinnatiMurray State*
Atlanta Regional
Georgia Tech* (14)Mississippi StateAustin Peay*Eastern Illinois*
Fayetteville Regional
Arkansas (2)KansasUT Rio Grande ValleyOral Roberts*
Fort Worth Regional
TCU (15)OklahomaCreighton*Houston Christian*
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter, @aria_gerson.