Baseball America | Blog | Baseball America College Blog | NCAA Tournament Field Facts & Figures

The NCAA's 64-team Division I tournament field is out, and the Atlantic Coast and Southeastern Conferences have the most teams in the field with seven apiece. The SEC ties for first even though Louisiana State and Mississippi, two bubble teams, were left out of the field.

The Big 12 and Pacific-10 both had six bids, while Conference USA had four teams that earned bids. The Atlantic Sun, Big East and Sun Belt had three regional teams apiece, with the Big West and Mountain West the other multi-bid leagues with two apiece.

Other tournament field notes:

• Dallas Baptist reached its second at-large bid as an independent in the last three seasons.

• Eight schools from the state of Florida made the field, and Florida, California and Texas (seven apiece) account for 22 of the 64 teams.

• Miami extends its NCAA record with its 39th consecutive regional bid, with Florida State ranking second with its 34th bid. Other streaks of note include Cal State Fullerton (20), Rice (17) and Oral Roberts (14), which has won the Summit League (and its predecessor, the Mid-Continent conference) the last 14 years.

Here's the field in paragraph form:

Atlanta Regional hosted by Georgia Tech
No. 1 Georgia Tech (40-19) vs. No. 4 Austin Peay (33-22)
No. 2 Southern Miss. (39-17) vs. No. 3 Mississippi State (34-23)

Austin Regional hosted by Texas
No. 1 Texas (43-15) vs. No. 4 Princeton (23-22)
No. 2 Texas State (40-21) vs. No. 3 Kent State (43-15)

Chapel Hill Regional hosted by North Carolina
No. 1 North Carolina (45-14) vs. No. 4 Maine (32-22)
No. 2 Fla. International (40-18-1) vs. No. 3 James Madison (40-17)

Charlottesville Regional hosted by Virginia
No. 1 Virginia (49-9) vs. No. 4 Navy (33-23-1)
No. 2 East Carolina (39-19) vs. No. 3 St. John’s (NY) (35-20)

Clemson Regional hosted by Clemson
No. 1 Clemson (41-18) vs. No. 4 Sacred Heart (34-21)
No. 2 Connecticut (41-17-1) vs. No. 3 Coastal Caro. (41-18)

College Station Regional hosted by Texas A&M
No. 1 Texas A&M (42-18) vs. No. 4 Wright State (36-17)
No. 2 Arizona (36-19) vs. No. 3 Seton Hall (33-23)

Columbia Regional hosted by South Carolina
No. 1 South Carolina (45-14) vs. No. 4 Georgia Southern (36-24)
No. 2 Stetson (41-18) vs. No. 3 North Carolina State (34-25)

Corvallis Regional hosted by Oregon State
No. 1 Oregon State (38-17) vs. No. 4 Arkansas-Little Rock (24-32)
No. 2 Creighton (44-14) vs. No. 3 Georgia (31-30)

Fort Worth Regional hosted by TCU
No. 1 Texas Christian (42-17) vs. No. 4 Oral Roberts (36-20)
No. 2 Oklahoma (41-17) vs. No. 3 Dallas Baptist (39-17)

Fullerton Regional hosted by Cal State Fullerton
No. 1 Cal State Fullerton (40-15) vs. No. 4 Illinois (28-25)
No. 2 Stanford (32-20) vs. No. 3 Kansas State (36-23)

Gainesville Regional hosted by Florida
No. 1 Florida (45-16) vs. No. 4 Manhattan (34-17)
No. 2 Miami (Fla.) (36-21) vs. No. 3 Jacksonville (36-22)

Houston Regional hosted by Rice
No. 1 Rice (41-19) vs. No. 4 Alcorn State (27-28)
No. 2 Baylor (29-26) vs. No. 3 California (31-20)

Los Angeles Regional hosted by UCLA
No. 1 UCLA (33-22) vs. No. 4 San Francisco (31-23)
No. 2 Fresno State (40-14) vs. No. 3 UC Irvine (39-16)

Nashville Regional hosted by Vanderbilt
No. 1 Vanderbilt (47-10) vs. No. 4 Belmont (36-24)
No. 2 Oklahoma State (35-23) vs. No. 3 Troy (42-17)

Tallahassee Regional hosted by Florida State
No. 1 Florida State (42-17) vs. No. 4 Bethune-Cookman (36-23)
No. 2 Central Florida (38-21) vs. No. 3 Alabama (33-26)

Tempe Regional hosted by Arizona State
No. 1 Arizona State (39-16) vs. No. 4 New Mexico (20-39)
No. 2 Arkansas (38-20) vs. No. 3 Charlotte (42-14)

While their number two pitchers are no slouch, Coastal and UConn have very clear aces in Meo and Barnes. Do they face off in game 1? If so, is Clemson breathing a sigh of relief?

Posted by David | May 30, 2011 at 12:32 pm | Shortcut

I honestly dont know how they can give Rice a national seed over A&M. Rice did go 2-0 vs A&M but the fact is one of those games was a mid week game so neither team was throwing any of their weekend starters, and A&M is on a 5 game winning streak and sweept through the Big 12 tournament. The comitee said that because they lost Stillson, A&M's ace, is the reason they didnt get it but so far, A&M has proved that it hasnt affected them.

Posted by Will | May 30, 2011 at 2:12 pm | Shortcut

Well you said it; Rice went 2-0 against A&M. Take away that midweek game if you want and Rice went 1-0 against them. They both won a share of their regular season conference championships and they both won their conference tournaments. They have very similar overall records. I think head to head losses is a valid way to determine the seeding outcome.

Posted by Kyle | May 30, 2011 at 4:23 pm | Shortcut

[...] Division 1 baseball tournament field was announced this afternoon with the ACC and SEC leading the way at 7 teams each. Eight schools [...]

Posted by Baseball Tournament Field of 64 announced | Mrcollegesports's Blog | May 30, 2011 at 7:38 pm | Shortcut

Not to pile on but that last comment is why there are Aggie jokes

Posted by jay | May 30, 2011 at 8:00 pm | Shortcut

I cant believe that UCLA is hosting a regional, let alone the #1 seed in that regional. I know they have 2 potentional top 10 draft picks in Bauer and Cole but can somebody explain how thats deserving of a 1 seed?

Posted by Garrett | May 30, 2011 at 8:17 pm | Shortcut

They won the Pacific-10 Conference. That’s fairly significant.

Posted by John Manuel | May 30, 2011 at 8:34 pm | Shortcut

how does ASU get a regional when they are banned from post season play?

Posted by rammer | May 30, 2011 at 11:35 pm | Shortcut

Claiming Rice deserves it for 2 non-series wins over A&M is a stretch. If that's a weekend series I buy it, but not when it's a beginning of year tourney and one mid-week match-up.
Frankly, Rice deserved a NS. But if that's true, so did A&M.

Posted by Sure thing Jay | May 31, 2011 at 12:02 am | Shortcut

The postseason ban is currently under appeal; if the appeal is denied, ASU will have to sit out the 2012 postseason.

Posted by Aaron Fitt | May 31, 2011 at 12:32 am | Shortcut

CSU Bakersfield got gaffled. They belonged in this field.

Posted by Michael | May 31, 2011 at 1:23 am | Shortcut

I'm interested to see if Manhattan score a single run and hold the Gators under 22…LSU must be vomiting all over the place when they see teams like Manhattan, Sacred Heart and the like in the tournament…Go CANES!!!!!!!!

Posted by Marty | May 31, 2011 at 11:54 am | Shortcut

I find it funny that after S. Carolina and Clemson played each other in two CWS' they decide to pit the two against each other in a super regional instead. I smell ESPN and their concern about small market appeall/a South Eastern Dominated CWS. If seeded "correctly" (given its my view of correctly but still) the CWS field could have very easily been all SEC & ACC meaning there would be no reason for the rest of the country to even watch so I smell alot of TV market sharing in this set up.

Posted by jay | May 31, 2011 at 2:41 pm | Shortcut

Marty its funny because last time I checked Manhattan beat #6 Nebraska against Joba Chamberlin in the 2006 regionals and made the finals. Plus the last meeting between the Jaspers and Miami resulted in a 12-7 Manhattan victory. Check yourself.

Posted by Joey | May 31, 2011 at 4:09 pm | Shortcut

I dont understand why there is so much controversy over LSU. They were the 9th place team out of 12 teams in the SEC. According to baseball america's recent top 25, the SEC only has 3 teams in the top 25. Thats pathetic. The Pac-10 has 4 teams in the top 25, and only has 10 teams total in the conference. While the ACC has 6 teams in the top 25. The SEC is way over-rated, and just because LSU won the Champsionship 2-years ago, doesn't mean they are a quality team this year. They got embarassed in a conference that is over-rated.

Posted by South East Biased | May 31, 2011 at 10:32 pm | Shortcut

@Marty – Manhattan, as you may already know, since it sounds like you're a Miami fan, won two games in the 2006 Lincoln regional, beating Nebraska (and Joba Chamberlain) and San Francisco, before losing to Miami in the regional final. And, just last year, the Jaspers beat the Canes in Miami.
No, the Jaspers aren't a national power. No, they probably aren't going to win the CWS, but you better not underestimate a school like them. They're small, but they're going down there with absolutely nothing to lose. If they happen to lose 22-0, I guess nobody will really think about it much, since that's expected of them. But what if they win? What if they force the Gators to play all nine innings, making them go deep into their 'pen and end up losing 9-8? That'll certainly hurt the Gators chances of winning their second game, won't it?
Just because a school like Manhattan isn't a national power doesn't mean they aren't good. Any team that can go 23-2 in conference is pretty good in my book. Just don't be surprised when they play a good, solid, clean baseball game, because that's what I've come to expect from them.

Posted by Todd | June 1, 2011 at 9:20 am | Shortcut

Congrats to A&M for a great regular season. However, Rice got the seed and the Aggies did not. Since A&M lost to Rice twice this season, how would it look if the Aggies got the seed and Rice did not? Similar records, both won their conference tourneys. One might also consider that Rice has been a perennial power for 17 years or so. Wish all great Texas teams the best in the CWS tournament.

Posted by RBD | June 1, 2011 at 11:40 am | Shortcut