With 28/54 games under their belt, and the college baseball world hitting its halfway point of the regular season as we enter April, D1 Baseball has dropped its official Midseason Field of 64 projection for the College Baseball tournament.
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Texas, the No. 2 team in the nation at 24-4, is projected to remain as the No. 2 team in the nation, hosting TCU, Lamar and Saint Joseph’s in the Austin Regional.
The Longhorns sit just behind UCLA and just ahead of Georgia Tech, the three currently highest-ranked teams, with No. 4 MS State and current No. 10 Virginia moving their way up to the No. 5 spot by season’s end.
Georgia (11), Alabama (12) and Florida (13) join the Longhorns and Bulldogs as SEC teams projected to host a regional with one of 16 national seeds.
In the overall Field of 64 projection, the SEC features 13 teams, with Tennessee making it in as a ‘last four in’ team and Vanderbilt barely missing as in the ‘last four out’ category. South Carolina and Missouri are the only SEC teams not noted in the projection.
Here’s what D1 Baseball had to say about their projections:
One thing to keep in mind with the way NCAA tournament seedings now operate: The NCAA Baseball Selection Committee will now rank the Top 32 teams, with 17-32 teams being grouped in pods as two seeds with the Top 16 seeds. For instance, teams in the 29-32 range will go national seeds in the No’s 1-4 range, teams in the 25-28 range will go to national seeds No’s 5-8, teams in the 21-24 range will go to national seeds in the No’s 9-12 range and teams in the 17-20 range will be two seeds at the No’s 13-16 regionals. It is worth noting two things: geographical considerations still matter when applicable, and you still cannot have two teams from the same conference in the same regional. That will naturally cause some seeding manipulation during the process.
So Texas, were they to host by season’s end, could not have a team from the SEC in their regional, and would likely face a program generally around their geographical area, such as TCU. The closest non-SEC team in the 17-32 range of D1’s projection is Arizona State, which is closer to the top-20 than No. 32. UTSA, which Texas hosted last year, and Texas State are also teams to watch.
Overall, D1 clearly holds Texas and Mississippi State to the highest standards in the SEC, making them the only teams in the top-10 national seeds from the conference.
A top-eight draw is especially optimal, as winning your regional would also guarantee you to host a super regional against one of the eight lowest-ranked seeds to advance through round one.
The NCAA Tournament selection show will take place on Monday, May 25, with regional play beginning on Friday, May 29.