With college baseball heading into the final weekend of the regular season, the announcement of the 64-team NCAA tournament field is less than two weeks away. Our latest bracket projection indicates some teams are trending in the right direction, but naturally any upward movement comes at the expense of someone else.
As usual, the SEC is front and center. LSU has moved up to the No. 2 overall seed after a series win against Arkansas. Vanderbilt is now comfortably among the top eight after taking a series from Tennessee, which has slipped a bit in the pecking order. In another development, Texas A&M has fallen completely out of the projected field after being swept by Missouri. The season has been a major disappointment for the Aggies, last year’s national runners-up who began the year with the No. 1 ranking.
This is the final weekend of the regular season before teams play in conference tournaments, so there’s still time for those down the bracket and just outside the field to make an impression.
(* denotes teams that are automatic qualifiers based on current conference standings.)
Austin region
Texas* (1)
Texas-San Antonio*
Kansas
Central Connecticut State*
Baton Rouge region
LSU (2)
Northeastern*
Arizona
Missouri State*
Tallahassee region
Florida State* (3)
Mississippi State
Stetson*
Bethune-Cookman*
Fayetteville region
Arkansas (4)
Duke
Northeastern*
Bryant*
Athens region
Georgia (5)
Louisville
Texas Rio Grand Valley
Holy Cross*
Auburn region
Auburn (6)
Miami (Fla.)
Connecticut*
Miami (Ohio)*
Nashville region
Vanderbilt (7)
Wake Forest
Southern California
Oral Roberts*
Chapel Hill region
North Carolina (8)
Oklahoma
Kansas State
Yale*
Corvallis region
Oregon State (9)
Mississippi
Arizona State
Sacramento State*
Myrtle Beach region
Coastal Carolina* (10)
North Carolina State
Kentucky
High Point*
Los Angeles region
UCLA (11)
Dallas Baptist*
Cal Poly
San Diego*
Clemson region
Clemson (12)
Southern Mississippi
East Tennessee State*
Rhode Island*
Knoxville region
Tennessee (13)
Georgia Tech
Iowa*
Tennessee Tech*
Eugene region
Oregon (14)
UC Irvine*
Xavier
Nevada*
Tuscaloosa region
Alabama (15)
West Virginia*
Southeastern Louisiana*
Fairfield*
Fort Worth region
TCU (16)
Florida
Virginia
Wright State*
Last four in: Cal Poly, Texas Rio Grande Valley, Virginia, Xavier.
First four out: Western Kentucky, Creighton, Cincinnati, Texas A&M.
Team breakdown by conference: SEC (13), ACC (10), Big 12 (6), Big Ten (4), Sun Belt (3), Big East (2), Big West (2), Southland (2).