• After a relatively quiet past couple of weeks from a national seed standpoint, there's movement this week with three teams moving out as national seeds, and obviously, three new teams entering the mix. The three teams outside the top eight now include Texas, Cal Poly and Washington, while Oregon State, Indiana and Ole Miss entered the mix, thanks to strong weeks that boosted their respective resumes. The Beavers have made a steady climb in the RPI recently, climbing from the mid-30s to 13 this week. The Beavers lead the Pac-12 and are 4-0 vs. RPI Top 25, 10-3 vs. RPI Top 50 and 14-5 vs. RPI Top 100, all solid metrics. Meanwhile, Indiana has climbed to 2 in the latest RPI, and, too, has a solid resume with a 5-5 mark vs. RPI Top 25, 6-5 mark vs. RPI Top 50 and outstanding 21-8 record vs. RPI Top 100. There's also the Rebels, who narrowly grabbed the final national seed this week. The Rebels still have work to do resume-wise with a 5-7 mark vs. RPI Top 25, 13-9 record vs. RPI Top 50 and 15-11 mark vs. RPI Top 100. Ole Miss has a solid 13-8 conference record, and has a chance to really boost that overall resume the final three weeks of the regular season.
• There are two new NCAA Regional host sites in this week's projections with Texas and Kentucky each losing their host sites after lackluster weeks, the Longhorns dropping a home series to Oklahoma State, while the Wildcats were swept at home by Ole Miss. Taking their place were Ole Miss and TCU. TCU, as with Oregon State, has been on an upward trajectory RPI-wise the past few weeks. The Horned Frogs swept the Longhorns two weekends ago and now are near the top of the Big 12 standings. TCU has an RPI of 11 with a high quality resume. The Frogs are 6-4 vs. RPI Top 25, 14-8 vs. RPI Top 50 and 15-11 vs. RPI Top 100. The Frogs also have a non-conference RPI of 34, along with a solid 14-7 road record.
• Curious about which teams are behind TCU in the hosting department? In order, the teams missing the hosting cut include Liberty, Texas, Texas Tech, Vanderbilt and Louisville. Liberty is the most intriguing team in the mix for a host site. We detailed the Flames in this Mid-Major Spotlight, and they're more than ready to host in a beautiful new ballpark. The NCAA probably would love to give the Flames a host, but it will take a very strong finish to solidify that opportunity. The Flames have an RPI of 22, overall record of 35-10 and are just 1-1 vs. RPI Top 25, 5-3 vs. RPI Top 50 and 14-6 vs. RPI Top 100. The Flames have a midweek bout against Virginia next week before facing Coastal Carolina over the weekend. In other words, they'll have plenty of chances to boost their resume between now and Selection Monday.
• Other notes from this week's projections: Some will wonder how UC Irvine went from slightly out of the field to the last two seed. Well, remember, the actual seeding of the No's 2 and 3 seeds doesn't matter much, and there are some metrics really in Irvine's favor. For instance, though the Anteaters don't have a great RPI resume with just a 9-11 mark vs. RPI Top 100, they're 29-14 overall and have an excellent first-place record of 11-1 in the Big West. Irvine will solidify that No. 2 seed if it finishes strong with weekend series against UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly, Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State remaining.
• Teams just missing the cut for the field of 64 this week include Dallas Baptist, Illinois State, Maryland, Auburn, Kansas, Virginia Commonwealth, East Carolina, San Diego State, Southern Mississippi, Wake Forest and Arkansas State. As usual, we'll have a column tomorrow breaking down all the bubble resumes.
-- The projected national seeds are listed on the left, seed denoted in parenthesis. Regional on the right matches up to be projected NCAA Super Regional.
* Denotes automatic bid
| College Baseball Field of 64 (April 30) |
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.
1. Virginia* (1)
4. Delaware State*
2. Liberty*
3. Bryant*
|
HOUSTON (U. of Houston)
1. Houston
4. Creighton*
2. Texas
3. San Diego
|
GAINESVILLE, FLA.
1. Florida* (2)
4. Western Illinois*
2. UCF*
3. Old Dominion
|
CORAL GABLES, FLA.
1. Miami (Fla.)
4. Columbia*
2. Vanderbilt
3. Cal State Fullerton
|
CORVALLIS, ORE.
1. Oregon State* (3)
4. Wright State*
2. UC Irvine
3. Indiana State
|
SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIF.
1. Cal Poly*
4. Sacramento State*
2. Pepperdine*
3. USC
|
COLUMBIA, S.C.
1. South Carolina (4)
4. College of Charleston*
2. Mercer*
3. Duke
|
FORT WORTH, TEXAS
1. TCU
4. Evansville*
2. Arizona State
3. New Mexico
|
LAFAYETTE, LA.
1. Louisiana-Lafayette* (5)
4. Stony Brook*
2. Oklahoma State*
3. Arkansas
|
BATON ROUGE, LA.
1. LSU
4. SE Missouri State*
2. Oregon
3. West Virginia
|
BLOOMINGTON, IND.
1. Indiana* (6)
4. Bucknell*
2. Louisville
3. North Carolina
|
SEATTLE
1. Washington
4. Ball State*
2. Kentucky
3. UC Santa Barbara
|
TALLAHASSEE, FLA.
1. Florida State (7)
4. Alabama State*
2. Mississippi State
3. Nebraska
|
TUSCALOOSA, ALA.
1. Alabama
4. Saint Louis*
2. Georgia Tech
3. Sam Houston State*
|
OXFORD, MISS.
1. Mississippi (8)
4. Davidson*
2. Texas Tech
3. Clemson
|
HOUSTON (Rice U.)
1. Rice*
4. Canisius*
2. UNLV*
3. Texas A&M
|
CONFERENCE AUTOMATIC BIDS
Atlantic 10: Saint Louis
American Athletic: Central Florida
Atlantic Coast: Virginia
America East: Stony Brook
Atlantic Sun: Mercer
Big Ten: Indiana
Big 12: Oklahoma State
Big East: Creighton
Big South: Liberty
Big West: Cal Poly
Colonial Athletic: College of Charleston
Conference USA: Rice
Horizon: Wright State
Ivy League: Columbia
Metro Atlantic: Canisius
Mid-American: Ball State
Mid-Eastern Athletic: Delaware State
Missouri Valley: Evansville
Mountain West: UNLV
Northeast: Bryant
Ohio Valley: Southeast Missouri
Pac-12: Oregon State
Patriot: Bucknell
Southeastern: Florida
Southern: Davidson
Southland: Sam Houston State
Southwestern Athletic: Alabama State
Summit: Western Illinois
Sun Belt: Louisiana-Lafayette
West Coast: Pepperdine
Western Athletic: Sacramento State |