Texas Earns Top Overall Seed for NCAA Baseball Tournament

This was the scene last summer in Omaha, as Fresno State completed an improbable run by winning the College World Series title. Such a scene could be repeated in 2009. The Bulldogs beat New Mexico State twice Sunday to win the Western Athletic Conference tournament. With that, they get an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Selections for the 64-team event were announced Monday.

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The regional round begins Friday. It consists of 16 regionals with four teams in each. Of the 64 teams in the field, only the top eight are listed as national seeds. The rest of the teams are only seeded within their individual regionals.

The NCAA draws up a bracket that will pair each of the top eight national seeds off with another regional. The winners of these two regionals will meet in Super Regional play starting June 5, with the winners moving into the College World Series in Omaha starting June 13.

Regionals are double elimination. Play at each will open with the top seed meeting the fourth seed, while the second and third seeds collide.

The top national seed is Texas, and we'll start our look at the regionals in Austin.

Austin (Texas) Regional 1. Texas (No. 1 national seed) 2. Texas State 3. Boston College 4. Army

Fort Worth (TCU) Regional 1. Texas Christian 2. Texas A&M 3. Oregon State 4. Wright State

Texas won the Big 12 title, and they have been one of the more consistent teams throughout the season. Legendary coach Augie Garrido has a balanced lineup and some solid pitching. Oregon State was thought by many to be a major snub from last year's field, as a tough early schedule masked a strong finish in Pac-10 play. No such trouble for the Beavers this year. TCU is not a lock in the Fort Worth Regional. They hosted the Mountain West Tournament over the weekend and made a pretty quick exit.

Gainesville (Florida) Regional 1. Florida (No. 8) 2. Miami 3. Jacksonville 4. Bethune-Cookman

Atlanta (Georgia Tech) Regional 1. Georgia Tech 2. Elon 3. Southern Mississippi 4. Georgia State

Florida can really hit, but this Miami team is dangerous. They're also not at all short on confidence, as the Hurricanes won a series in Gainesville earlier this season. Georgia Tech had an up-and-down weekend in the ACC Tournament. They'd better not sleep on Georgia State, who split games against Tech during the season.

Chapel Hill (UNC) Regional 1. N. Carolina (No. 4) 2. Coastal Carolina 3. Kansas 4. Dartmouth

Greenville (ECU) Regional 1. East Carolina 2. South Carolina 3. George Mason 4. Binghamton (N.Y.)

North Carolina and Coastal Carolina have a bit of a rivalry, one that has been dominated in postseason play by UNC. The Tar Heels, led by top prospect Dustin Ackley, were the pick of The Sporting News to win the whole thing in their baseball season preview magazine. An experienced South Carolina team stands in the way of East Carolina, who is one of two Conference USA teams to host regionals. The Gamecocks don't have a ton of pitching, but DeAngelo Mack and Nick Ebert can really swing it.

Tempe (Arizona State) Regional 1. Ariz. State (No. 5) 2. Oral Roberts 3. Cal Poly 4. Kent State

Clemson Regional 1. Clemson 2. Alabama 3. Oklahoma State 4. Tennessee Tech

Arizona State has enough pitching depth to beat anyone in the country, but can they get the offense? Cal Poly is in the tournament for the first time ever. Clemson is a very dangerous team that comes out of a tough league. Wilson Boyd and Ben Paulsen lead a hard-hitting offense. Oklahoma State gets the honor for "most controversial at-large choice". Don't fret. There has to be one in every NCAA Tournament, as dictated by federal law.

Baton Rouge (LSU) Regional 1. LSU (No. 3) 2. Minnesota 3. Baylor 4. Southern

Houston (Rice) Regional 1. Rice 2. Kansas State 3. Xavier 4. Sam Houston State

LSU made the College World Series last year, and they're a favorite to get back to Omaha. Minnesota can pitch, and they're not the typical weak northern team at all. They beat some good teams throughout the season. Baylor lost a ton of games down the stretch, and like Oklahoma State, probably has no business in the field. Rice has a national championship in recent years. Mike Ojala and Ryan Berry are a nice one-two punch atop the Owls' staff.

Irvine Regional 1. UC-Irvine (No. 6) 2. Virginia 3. San Diego State 4. Fresno State

Oxford (Miss.) Regional 1. Mississippi 2. Missouri 3. Western Kentucky 4. Monmouth (N.J)

I'm pretty sure Irvine's regional is the Group of Death. The Anteaters won the Big West by five games over Cal State-Fullerton, beat Fullerton in two of three regular-season games, and were rewarded with lower national seed and far tougher regional than the Titans. Makes sense to me. UCI doesn't have a lot of pop in the lineup, but they have a .400 on-base percentage as a team. Fresno State is the defending champion, and they were a fourth seed in their regional a year ago. San Diego State has a pretty good pitcher named Stephen Strasburg that you might have heard of.

Fullerton Regional 1. Cal State-Fullerton (No. 2) 2. Georgia Southern 3. Gonzaga 4. Utah

Louisville Regional 1. Louisville 2. Middle Tennessee 3. Vanderbilt 4. Indiana

Fullerton's got a good team, and they proved it over the course of the season by beating up a quality non-conference slate, but this is a cakewalk regional for a team that finished so far behind in their own league. Louisville won the Big East and earned this top seed, and their bats make them a threat to spring an upset along the way.

Norman (Okla.) Regional 1. Oklahoma (No. 7) 2. Arkansas 3. Washington State 4. Wichita State

Tallahassee (FSU) Regional 1. Florida State 2. Georgia 3. Ohio State 4. Marist (N.Y.)

This was a somewhat surprising choice, as Florida State seemed a virtual lock to be a national seed. That said, it's not indefensible, and it's not like it will make a huge difference in the end. Ohio State is led by pitcher Alex Wimmers, who has a no-hitter and 131 strikeouts in just 100-plus innings.


It's absolutely criminal that Rhode Island, a team that worked their tails off to schedule a quality non-conference schedule, is not in this tournament. For years, northern teams who didn't schedule well out of league play were snubbed because of this. Since most northern leagues are not very strong in terms of the overall RPI, this makes perfect sense.

Rewarding teams like Oklahoma State, who didn't even qualify for the Big 12 Tournament, makes zero sense. Oklahoma State's resume of quality wins just doesn't match URI. Rhode Island played their first 25 games on the road, played less than one-third of their total games at home, and clearly made an effort to play anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Not only that, but while this isn't necessarily the responsibility of the selection committee, we're not going to encourage northern schools to invest in baseball until they are given a fair shake in the selection process. Rhode Island is the latest in a long line of teams to fall short in this category.