After an exciting season of college baseball, we’re gearing up for postseason ball. The NCAA Division I regional tournaments start on Friday, and if you’re new to the nation’s most underrated sport or want to know more before you watch, here’s a handy guide to some of the storylines headed into the regionals.
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The bracket is set, and the #RoadToOmaha starts now. ⚾️🏆
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📲 https://t.co/D9Ga3efNbI pic.twitter.com/JDSX3QhtuM— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) May 26, 2025
The Southeastern Conference Continues to Dominate
The SEC shone throughout the regular season, with several conference teams claiming the top spot in various polls, and it continues to loom large in the postseason. The NCAA awarded eight of the 16 regional sites to SEC teams, which ties the record the conference set two years ago.
The SEC will host HALF of the NCAA baseball regionals 🔥 pic.twitter.com/5zc7tKUSnX
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) May 26, 2025
The SEC will have Arkansas (43-13), Auburn (38-18), Georgia (42-15), LSU (43-14), Mississippi (40-19), Tennessee (43-16), Texas (42-12) and Vanderbilt (42-16) playing at home to start the national tournament.
Three Atlantic Coast Conference teams are hosts: Clemson (44-16), Florida State (38-14), and North Carolina (42-12).
First-year Big Ten schools Oregon (42-14) and UCLA (42-16) are hosts, as are Sun Belt Conference schools Coastal Carolina (48-11) and Southern Mississippi (44-14) and independent Oregon State (41-12-1).
Additionally, six of the top eight seeds in the postseason belong to SEC teams. On top of that, 13 SEC teams made it to the postseason, another record.
COLLEGE BASEBALL HISTORY 🚨
13 SEC teams will play on the Road to Omaha 🔥 pic.twitter.com/TPEEeVSPgX
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) May 26, 2025
Any one of the SEC teams in the tournament could win it all. Vanderbilt took the top spot in the tournament seeding after winning the SEC tournament. Arkansas is the heavy favorite to win it all, and it’s easy to see why: they’re a well-rounded team. You can’t count out defending champion Tennessee, Texas, LSU, or, of course, my Georgia Bulldogs.
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Here’s an interesting side note: Texas A&M was the preseason number one, but it wound up being one of the three SEC teams to fail to make the postseason.
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The Ultimate Underdogs
Two teams in this year’s regionals arguably have a tough road ahead of them because they have losing regular-season records. The University of Little Rock is playing in the Baton Rouge, La., regional despite a record of 24-32, while North Dakota State is playing in the Fayetteville, Ark., regional after a 20-32 season.
How did these teams earn a chance to play in the College World Series, you may ask? They’re automatic qualifiers because they won their conference tournaments.
We can’t count them out completely, but they’re facing long odds because they fell rear-end backward into the tournaments. As number-four seeds in their respective regionals, they’re facing the toughest competition in the number-one host teams.
MLB Prospects to Watch
The future of the major leagues will be on display in college baseball postseason play. Here are just a few of the top MLB draft prospects you can catch this weekend in the regionals:
- Infielders: Aiva Arquette (Oregon State), Wehiwa Aloy (Arkansas), Gavin Kilen (Tennessee), Daniel Dickinson (LSU), Alex Lodise (Florida State)
- Outfielders: Tre Phelps (Georgia), Max Belyeu (Texas), Brendan Summerhill (Arizona), Cam Cannarella (Clemson), Mason Neville (Oregon)
- Catchers: Luke Stevenson (North Carolina), Cade Bodine (Coastal Carolina), Ike Irish (Auburn), Easton Carmichael (Oklahoma), Henry Hunter (Georgia)
- Pitchers: Mason Morris (Ole Miss), Gage Wood (Arkansas), Jamie Arnold (Florida State), Kade Anderson (LSU), Kyson Witherspoon (Oklahoma)
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The Toughest Regional?
The Athletic identified the Conway, S.C., regional as one of the most interesting ones to watch. Host team Coastal Carolina (one of my favorite non-SEC teams) is 24-3 at home, which makes them a formidable opponent. East Carolina will fight hard, as will Florida (although I’ll shout from the rooftops that the Gators started conference play 1-11; they’re not the dominant Florida teams of the past couple of years). And don’t count out Fairfield. This one might be fun to witness.
Games start on Friday on the ESPN family of networks, or you can download the NCAA Men’s College World Series app for stats and info. This weekend’s going to be a blast, and the super regionals will bring even more excitement next weekend!
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