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The college baseball postseason picture is always changing, but what isn’t changing much are the top eight national seeds in this week’s D1Baseball Postseason Projections.
Texas A&M, Arkansas, Clemson, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina and East Carolina remain top eight seeds, while Wake Forest dropped out of the top eight after dropping a series at Notre Dame. Taking the Demon Deacons spot is Florida State, which won a huge road series over Duke and has a very advantageous schedule down the stretch.
In terms of the other top 16 seeds and regional hosts, Oregon State is creeping back up to No. 9 and is knocking on the door to being a top eight seed yet again. Meanwhile, there are two new top 16 seeds in this week’s projections — Arizona and Coastal Carolina are out after ugly weekends, respectively, and UCSB and Oklahoma State entered this week.
The Pokes continue to be in contention for the Big 12 Conference regular season title and have a solid RPI and overall resume, while UCSB has a solid non-conference resume and is up to 17 in the latest RPI with a 28-12 overall record and strong marks in the Big West Conference. The Gauchos, by the way, are set to try to host at home in Santa Barbara.
TRACKING CONFERENCES: Schedule, bracket for every conference tournament
Overall, the SEC leads all teams in the latest projections with 10 teams in the field, while the ACC is close behind with nine representatives. The Big 12 has seven, along with two bonafide bubble teams in TCU and Kansas. Meanwhile, the Pac-12 and Sun Belt each have four teams in the field, and the Big East, Big Ten, Coastal, Conference USA and Big West each have two teams.
Our projections are assembled each week by the trio of Mark Etheridge, Kendall Rogers, and Aaron Fitt. Together, the trio has more than 60 years of experience covering college baseball and putting together regional projections.
Let’s unveil our projected field of 64 (parentheses indicate national seed):
| WEEK 12 FIELD OF 64 PROJECTIONS | |
|---|---|
| College Station Region | Norman Region |
| 1 Texas A&M (1) | 1 Oklahoma (16) |
| 4 Omaha | 4 Wright State |
| 2 Louisiana | 2 Nebraska |
| 3 Lamar | 3 Lousiana Tech |
| Fayetteville Region | Santa Barbara Region |
| 1 Arkansas (2) | 1 UC Santa Barbara (15) |
| 4 Little Rock | 4 Fresno State |
| 2 Oregon | 2 Arizona |
| 3 Kansas State | 3 Texas |
| Clemson Region | Stillwater Region |
| 1 Clemson (3) | 1 Oklahoma State (14) |
| 4 Army | 4 Saint Louis |
| 2 Georgia | 2 Dallas Baptist |
| 3 College of Charleston | 3 Florida |
| Knoxville Region | Durham Region |
| 1 Tennessee (4) | 1 Duke (13) |
| 4 Bryant | 4 Columbia |
| 2 West Virginia | 2 Mississippi State |
| 3 Virginia Tech | 3 Troy |
| Lexington Region | Charlottesville Region |
| 1 Kentucky (5) | 1 Virginia (12) |
| 4 Bowling Green | 4 Niagara |
| 2 NC State | 2 UC Irvine |
| 3 Utah | 3 UCF |
| Chapel Hill Region | Terre Haute Region |
| 1 North Carolina (6) | 1 Indiana State (11) |
| 4 Sacred Heart | 4 Austin Peay |
| 2 Alabama | 2 Vanderbilt |
| 3 Northeastern | 3 Purdue |
| Tallahassee Region | Columbia Region |
| 1 Florida State (7) | 1 South Carolina (10) |
| 4 Florida A&M | 4 USC Upstate |
| 2 Connecticut | 2 Coastal Carolina |
| 3 Texas Tech | 3 Georgia Tech |
| Greenville Region | Corvallis Region |
| 1 East Carolina (8) | 1 Oregon State (9) |
| 4 Samford | 4 Grand Canyon |
| 2 Wake Forest | 2 San Diego |
| 3 Southern Miss | 3 St. John’s |
LAST FOUR IN: St. John’s, Northeastern, Florida, Purdue
FIRST FOUR OUT: TCU, UNC Wilmington, Kansas, James Madison
