2022 NCAA Baseball Tournament Projected Field Of 64 (4/6/22)

By Teddy Cahill
on April 6, 2022

College baseball has reached the midpoint of the regular season and while there’s still a long way to go on the Road to Omaha, the postseason picture is beginning to take shape. Baseball America is updating the Projected Field of 64 weekly throughout the spring.

At this time of season, the emphasis is definitely on “projected.” This is not meant to be how the tournament would be seeded if it started tomorrow, it is meant to illustrate what it might be expected to look like on Selection Monday.

RPI, the primary metric the selection committee uses to build the field, is beginning to normalize, particularly at the top end. But teams can still see significant movement in the RPI in a given week and some teams listed here have a lot of work to do to improve their numbers, particularly among the hosts.

The ACC and SEC lead the way with four hosts each. Both conferences are likely to stay around that number all season, but until the conference races find more clarity, there will be fluctuation with what teams are projected on the host line. This week, Florida State and Vanderbilt drop out, replaced by Georgia and Notre Dame. The Bulldogs and Fighting Irish have positioned themselves well early, building top-10 RPIs, while the Seminoles and Commodores both have work to do in that area and are coming off getting swept at home. Were they both suffering just a bad weekend against a tough opponent or was it more indicative of their form going forward? It’s something to watch for two teams consistently in the hosting race.

Outside of the top four conferences—the ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC—Dallas Baptist, Gonzaga and Maryland are all on the host line. DBU is no surprise as it only was knocked out of the top spot in RPI this weekend by Tennessee and still ranks second. If it takes care of business in the Missouri Valley, it will host. The Zags and Terrapins, however, are perhaps more surprising. Both rank in the top 15 of RPI (Gonzaga 11, Maryland 15) and are favorites in conferences that often fare well on Selection Monday. Neither has a large margin of error in the hosting race, but both have the talent and non-conference resume to host.

The ACC and SEC have 10 teams in this projected field, which would tie a record they jointly own. Nearly every team in both conferences is still very much in the postseason mix. As ever, getting as close to .500 in conference play as possible is the goal for any team with regional aspirations in those conferences.

Baseball America will continue to update the projected field weekly throughout the spring.

PROJECTED FIELD OF 64
Knoxville, Tenn.		College Park, Md.
1. (1) Tennessee*^		1. (16) Maryland*^
2. Kennesaw State*		2. North Carolina
3. Indiana State*		3. Connecticut*
4. South Carolina-Upstate*		4. VCU*

Charlottesville, Va.		Spokane, Wash.
1. (2) Virginia*^		1. (15) Gonzaga*^
2. East Carolina*		2. Oregon
3. Mississippi State		3. Cal Poly
4. Norfolk State*		4. Harvard*

Fayetteville, Ark.		Athens, Ga.
1. (3) Arkansas^		1. (14) Georgia^
2. Iowa		2. Florida State
3. Oklahoma		3. Georgia Southern
4. New Jersey Tech*		4. College of Charleston*

Lubbock, Texas		South Bend, Ind.
1. (4) Texas Tech*^		1. (13) Notre Dame^
2. Louisiana State		2. Stanford
3. Virginia Tech		3. Kentucky
4. Army*		4. Central Michigan

Tucson, Ariz.		Dallas
1. (5) Arizona*^		1. (12) Dallas Baptist*^
2. UC Santa Barbara*		2. Texas Christian
3. Grand Canyon*		3. Louisiana Tech
4. Central Connecticut State*		4. Southeast Missouri State*

Austin		Louisville
1. (6) Texas^		1. (11) Louisville^
2. Texas State*		2. Vanderbilt
3. Georgia Tech		3. Michigan
4. Fairfield*		4. Wright State*

Corvallis, Ore.		Coral Gables, Fla.
1. (7) Oregon State^		1. (10) Miami^
2. Auburn*		2. Florida
3. San Diego		3. Mercer*
4. Nevada*		4. Bethune-Cookman*

Oxford, Miss.		Stillwater, Okla.
1. (8) Mississippi^		1. (9) Oklahoma State^
2. Southern Mississippi*		2. UCLA
3. Wake Forest		3. North Carolina State
4. New Orleans*		4. Oral Roberts*