Host Sites Announced

[Old Titan]

Here they are by conference:

Atlantic Coast 4 (Clemson, Florida St., Georgia Tech, North Carolina)

Southeastern 3 (Florida, LSU, Mississippi)

Big 12 2 (Oklahoma, Texas)

Big West 2 (UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton)

Conference USA 2 (East Carolina, Rice)

Pacific-10 1 (Arizona State)

Big East 1 (Louisville)

Mountain West 1 (TCU)

Anybody else as surprised that C-USA got the same number of regionals as the Big XII, and more than the Pac-10?

Would you be as surprised if I told you that the former baseball coach at C-USA's East Carolina, a school that was not considered a front-runner to host but got a regional anyway, was a heavy-hitter on the selection committee? 

[Bogus Smith]

I also wonder where the NCAA will send teams like Kstate, Mizzou, Minnesota and Ohio State.

Do KU (rpi of 52), Notre Dame (rpi of 56) make it in?

With all the regionals in Texas, the west coast and the South.  Where do these folks go? 

Sending one of those teams (not in the big 12 of course) to Norman could bust up that fantastic foursome we're speaking of.  Could also send us somewhere else I suppose.  Maybe OU, Ark and WSU are storylines enough (of course you could bounce WSU and add ORU there).  I don't know.  Just wondering into the keyboard today.

Should be interesting for sure.

What about an Oklahoma State at #27?  Should a Kansas team that went 0-3 in the Big XII Tournament with a RPI that is almost twice as high as OSU be allowed to participate in the Tournament over Okie State?

[Old Titan]

What about an Oklahoma State at #27?  Should a Kansas team that went 0-3 in the Big XII Tournament with a RPI that is almost twice as high as OSU be allowed to participate in the Tournament over Okie State?

If OSU gets in after failing to qualify for an eight-team conference postseason tournament, a lot of people are going to howl.

Regular season accomplishments - and lack thereof - should count for something.

[Bogus Smith]

Congratulations to former ORU assistant coach and now Head Coach of Wright State University, Rob Cooper, for defeating Illinois-Chicago for the Horizon League Championship and the Horizon League's automatic bid to the NCAA baseball championship!!  This could be another storyline if Wright State (#142) is named as a #4 seed in the same regional with ORU.

[theeagleman5]

Wright St?.....that would be sweet.....ORU could get a little payback for that b-ball beating we took down in Puerto Rico last season.....

[ORUJason]

It sounds like most of you think that ORU will get a 3-seed.

While I am hoping for a 3-seed, I suspect we might get a 4-seed since we don't have many high profile wins.  I hope I am wrong when the seedings come out tomorrow.

[TrueBlue82]

I think our record and RPI are both very sound - and with the rash of conference upsets, I would be shocked if we were assigned a 4 seed, especially with 12 consecutive NCAA berths.

[Bogus Smith]

It sounds like most of you think that ORU will get a 3-seed.

While I am hoping for a 3-seed, I suspect we might get a 4-seed since we don't have many high profile wins.  I hope I am wrong when the seedings come out tomorrow.

I would consider wins over Rice (#12), Dallas Baptist (#37) and Washington State (#48) along with long-standing NCAA-participant Wichita State to be high-profile wins for this year's team.  When you consider bottom of the 9th losses to Texas (#2) and Arkansas (#13), I believe that we have some good games to point to.  Even the three losses to Cal State-Fullerton could bode well for us. 

I realize that you are as big of an ORU fan as any of us, Jason, but I wouldn't discount our body of work except for the number of games that we were able to play.  In the end, it's possible that the lost games to Summit League brethern could have enhanced our RPI this year.

[ORUTerry]

I would be shocked at a #4 seed given the number of upsets in tournaments and our #38 RPI ranking - as well as our wins against Rice, etc.

[ORUJason]

I wonder if the baseball selection committee uses RPI as a tool for determining seeding (like they apparently do in basketball).

I remember a couple years in the past when I really felt that we deserved a 3-seed but didn't get one.  Last year, we definitely did deserve our 3-seed, and made it to the finals of the Nebraska regional.  But last year we were listed in the Top 30 of one of the college baseball polls for a few weeks and seemed to have a little bit stronger resume.

Perhaps a good showing in last year's regional combined with the few high profile wins and 12 years of consistency will be enough to get us a 3-seed.

I definitely believe that being a 3-seed gives you a much better chance to win a regional than being a 4-seed.  If you can win that 1st game, it gives the team so much confidence going into the 2nd game (most likely) against the 1-seed.  If we are to be sent as a 3-seed to OU with OU as a 1-seed, that is a great scenario for our team because there isn't much of any drop-off between our #1, #2, and #3 pitchers.  We could have a great showing against OU in the 2nd game if we could pull off a win in the 1st game.  I guess we'll see in about 2 hours.