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College  | Story  | 5/18/2016

Field of 64: May 18

Mike Rooney     




National Notes | Perfect Game Top 25 | Video Vault

This has to be the quickest College Baseball season in history. If you're thinking that statement is a sign that I'm getting older, then I'll need you to get off my lawn.

All kidding aside, Selection Monday is just one week from this coming Monday. It's go time and here is our second to last projected Field of 64.

As per usual, we will focus on the four subsets of teams that must be addressed in putting together the tournament.  Keep in mind that only one of these groups gets decided solely based on what happens on the field.  The four sets of teams, with some overlap, are as follows:

• 31 automatic bids
• 33 at-large bids
• 8 Top 8 National Seeds
• 8 additional Host sites for the Regional round

For the decisions we need to make in this exercise, we will combine current standings and team resumes with some projection and forecasting. Let's start with the 31 automatic bids.


Automatic Bids

America East:  Binghamton 
American: Tulane (30)
Atlantic 10: VCU
ACC: Miami
Atlantic Sun: Kennesaw State

Big 12: Texas Tech
Big East: Creighton (39)
Big South: Coastal Carolina (17)
Big Ten: Minnesota (41)
Big West: Cal State Fullerton

Colonial: UNC Wilmington (33)
C-USA: Southern Miss
Horizon: Wright State
Ivy: Princeton
MAAC: Fairfield

MAC: Kent State
MEAC: Florida A&M
Missouri Valley: Dallas Baptist (34)
Mountain West: Fresno State
Northeast: Bryant (35)

Ohio Valley: Southeast Missouri
Pac-12: Utah
Patriot: Navy 
SEC: Florida
Southern: UNC Greensboro (50)

Southland: Southeastern Louisiana (36)
SWAC: Alabama State
Summit: Oral Roberts
Sun Belt: South Alabama (42)
West Coast: Gonzaga (39)

WAC: Seattle

NOTE: The teams in BOLD (with their RPI as of May 17 in parenthesis) indicate a conference tournament that merits a close follow. In essence, these favored teams could "steal" an at-large bid if they do not in fact capture their league's automatic bid. The net result of this becomes less wiggle room for "bubble" teams.

(There is a time honored tradition among bubble teams: pull hard for all favorites to win their league's automatic bid!)

Now on to our Top 8 National Seeds and eight additional Regional Hosts.  That makes 16 teams in total and those teams who are currently listed as automatic qualifiers will be in BOLD.  This is critical because those BOLD teams will not count against the 33 available at-large bids.


Top 8 National Seeds
Remember: the order here is irrelevant long-term. There is no reward for being a higher seeded National Seed. The sole prize is hosting both a Regional and Super Regional. So in essence, you are either a Top 8 National Seed or you are not, period.

1. Florida
2. Miami
3. Texas A&M 
4. Louisville 
5. Mississippi State
6. Texas Tech 
7. Ole Miss
8. South Carolina

NOTE: Five at-large bids go to Top 8 National Seeds; 28 remain.


Additional Eight Hosts
There are 16 hosts in Regional round.

NC State 
Vanderbilt
LSU
Virginia
Southern Miss
Coastal Carolina
Arizona 
Cal State Fullerton

NOTE: Five more at-large bids were used, making 10 total utilized to this point; 23 remain.

Here are the 23 remaining at-large bids with the "Bubble Out" teams listed after.
RPI listed in parenthesis.

Clemson (11)
North Carolina (14)
Florida State (15)
Georgia Tech (18)
Texas Christian (19)

Louisiana-Lafayette (20)
UC Santa Barbara (21)
Florida Atlantic (22)
Oklahoma State (23)
Rice (26)

Duke (27)
Michigan (29)
Wake Forest (31)
East Carolina (32)
Arizona State (37)

BYU (43)
Long Beach State (44)
Louisiana Tech (46)
Alabama (47)
Kentucky (48)

North Florida (49)
Washington (52)


Bubble Out

Nebraska (55)
Cal (54)
Boston College (45)
Marshall (59)
Jacksonville (61)
Oregon State (63)
Michigan State (68)
Ohio State (76)
Indiana (96)


Postseason teams by Conference

• ACC: 10 (Miami, FSU, Louisville, UNC, NC State, Clemson, Ga Tech, Wake Forest, Duke Virginia)
• SEC: 9 (Florida, MSU, A&M, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Vandy, Kentucky, Alabama, LSU)
• Pac-12: 4 (Utah, Arizona State, Arizona, Washington)
• C-USA: 4 (Rice, Southern Miss, FAU, Louisiana Tech)
• Big 12: 3 (Texas Tech, TCU, Oklahoma State)
• Big West: 3 (UCSB, Fullerton, LBSU)
• Big Ten: 2 (Michigan, Minnesota)
• American Athletic: 2 (ECU, Tulane)
• West Coast: 2 (BYU, Gonzaga)
• Sun Belt: 2 (South Alabama, Louisiana-Lafayette)
• All others (21): 1
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