2023 college baseball/softball thread

Regional sites announced. Eight SEC schools among the 16, four others from the ACC, and one from the Sun Belt. Better hope for a dry weekend.

ACC: Wake Forest, Miami, Virginia, Clemson
SEC: Alabama, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Florida, Arkansas, South Carolina, LSU, Auburn
Other: Oklahoma State, Indiana State, Stanford, Coastal Carolina

 

Purple U. is going to be upset. The whining will be loud and excessive. Next time, don't lose to Tulane in the tournament, and three times to Campbell.

 

I guess I shouldn't expect anything to ever be different, especially when the head of the Selection Committee says he doesn't even watch West Coast baseball.

Sorry, but there is just no way 12 of the top 16 teams in the country are in two conferences. Especially when one of those conference has won a grand total of one championship since Ike's first term.

 

I don't know that eight SEC teams deserved to host, but it doesn't seem like a great year for West Coast teams. There are only four from the Pac-12, Big West or Mountain West ranked in the top 36 of RPI. Stanford is the highest at No. 17. The other three are Oregon, Washington and Oregon State, who are Nos. 33, 35 and 36. That's not a murderer's row.

 

Field set for WCWS.

 

Only one West Coast site. They wouldn't dare send Santa Clara and San Jose State there, would they?

 

Based on RPI Swapping out Auburn for Dallas Baptist would have been easy fix to spread out regional

 

ROLL WAVE!

 

Amazingly enough as someone who works with a bunch of ECU people, I very seldom if ever hear them complain about the things you allege they will be complaining about.

 

Count on it. The NCAA's annual "let's eliminate California" bracket.

The West Coast conferences all play a complete round-robin, which impacts your RPI. There are no skips. Unlike say, the SEC and the ACC, you have to play the strongest teams in your conference, which increases your chances of losing more games. You also must play the weakest, which can hurt your RPI.

RPI can be gamed.

 

How can it be gamed?

If you play the strong teams, "you increase the chances of losing more games."

If you play the weak teams, "it can hurt your RPI."

So which diabolical road do the SEC and ACC take? They play 10 of a possible 13 opponents, eight on a rotating basis.

 

Stanford regional has San Jose State, Fullerton and Texas A&M. So it's not all California teams.