Projecting The 64, Volume 6 - FINAL ANSWERS
Selection Monday is here. Hello and Good morning to you. It is time we all find out key committee decisions for the bubble and regional pairings. In case you missed the announcements, here are the official hosts for the 16 regional sites.
Athens, Georgia – Georgia (39-15)
Chapel Hill, North Carolina – North Carolina (42-13)
Charlottesville, Virginia – Virginia (41-15)
Clemson, South Carolina – Clemson (41-14)
Bryan-College Station, Texas – Texas A&M (44-13)
Corvallis, Oregon – Oregon State (42-14)
Fayetteville, Arkansas – Arkansas (43-14)
Greenville, North Carolina – East Carolina (43-15)
Knoxville, Tennessee – Tennessee (50-11)
Lexington, Kentucky – Kentucky (40-14)
Norman, Oklahoma – Oklahoma (37-19)
Raleigh, North Carolina – NC State (33-20)
Santa Barbara, California – UC Santa Barbara (42-12)
Stillwater, Oklahoma – Oklahoma State (40-17)
Tallahassee, Florida – Florida State (42-15)
Tucson, Arizona – Arizona (36-21)
FUN FACTS
The State of Louisiana is sending six teams to the NCAAs, which I believe is a new record for the State. We knew Louisiana Tech, Louisiana, and LSU were in great shape this week. In addition to that powerful trio - Grambling, Nicholls, and Tulane all had somewhat surprising auto bids to double the number of teams in the field from the State.
Fresno State rallied from the loser’s bracket to capture the Mountain West Tournament Title. This has been an incredible wild rollercoaster season for the Bulldogs.
Nebraska Cornhuskers earned its first-ever B1G title, & first conference title since 2005. They did it the hard way, knocking off Indiana twice on Saturday before winning a hard-fought 2-1 win over Penn State in the 9th inning on Sunday.
Overall thoughts on the Host Picks and Bubble Breakdown
Last night I joined Noah Bieniek (@NoahB77_) to break down my thoughts on the field. Noah is a tremendously passionate and knowledgeable College Baseball advocate. Special thanks to him for having me on the show. You can re-watch the entire episode here:
Tweaks Since Sunday
I had the opportunity to sleep on some of the real narrow decisions. Here are the main changes.
Charleston into the field, replacing James Madison. History favors the Dukes here, as JMU played the 5th toughest non-conference schedule and the Cougars played many home games in non-conference action. The reason for the switch is that the Cougars were the most consistent team all year in league play. Winning the biggest pair of series they faced all year against UNCW and Northeastern. If the committee gave us any downstream clues yesterday, they have respect for league champions. I think this could additionally benefit C of C. JMU could still be selected over other teams, however, I am sticking with the Indiana/Coastal Carolina/Florida/K-State quartet to get in (with committee help).
Order of National Seeds. Adjustments were made to move Oklahoma State (Big XII Champ) to 10th overall and to pull N.C. State up ahead of Virginia. I also am going with ECU (AAC Regular Season Champs) to squeeze in ahead of Oregon State (no Titles).
FIELD OF 64 PROJECTION - FINAL
Bubble Breakdown
60. TCU
61. Indiana
62. Florida
63. Kansas State
64. Charleston
First Five Out
James Madison
California
Georgia Tech
Northeastern
Lamar
Thank You
Thank You to everyone for taking an interest in this analysis for the past six days. I’ve enjoyed it and learned so much. Appreciate all of the insiders out there, who are so willing to answer questions. Enjoy the Regionals, everybody, we will do this again in a year. Cheers!